of  ttie 

®nibergitp  of  i^ortf)  Carolina 


Collection  of  i^ortf)  Caroliniana 


Cf)ts;  ibool^  toasi  presienteb 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 

llllllllllil 

00032690909 

This  book  must  not 
be  token  from  the 
Library  building. 


THIS  TITLE 


-IAS  BEEN  MICRO -ILMED 


Form  No.  471 


FATHER 


PRICE 


Shortly  before  leaving  for  China 


FATHER    PRICE 
OF    MARYKNOLL 


A    SHORT    SKETCH   OF   THE    LIFE    OF 
REVEREND   THOMAS    FREDERICK    PRICE 

MIS  SIGNER   IN   NORTH  CAROLINA 

CO-FOUNDER   OF   MARYKNOLL 

MISSIONER   IN   CHINA 


Compiled  from  the  letters  of  his  friends 
by  a  priest  of  Maryknoll 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

CATHOLIC  FOREIGN  MISSION  SOCIETY 
OF  AMERICA 

MARYKNOLL  :  :  :         NEW  YORK 


Arthur  J.  Scanlan,  S.T.D. 

Censor  of  Books 


^Tniprimatttr: 

►^Patrick  J.  Hayes,  D.D. 

Archbishop  of  New  York 


December,  1922 


Copyright,  1923,  by  the 

Catholic  Foreign  Mission  Society  of  America 

MaryknoU,  N.Y. 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


£)eliicateli  to 

Slesrsfft!  IBetnatietU  &ouftirou0, 

€\}i\ti  of  tht  3^mmaculate  Coiucption. 


do 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The   compiler  wishes   to   acknowledge  with 
gratitude   letters   from 

Reverend  ^Michael  A.  Irwtn 
Newton  Grove,  North  Carolina 

Reverend  Willimi  F.  O'Brien 
Durham,  North  Carolina 

Reverend  A.  R.  Freeman 
Goldsboro,  North  Carolina 

Reverend  William  B.  Hannon 
Asheville,  North  Carolina 

;Miss  Margaret  Price 

Wilmington,  North  Carolina 

and    others,     who     have     supplied     data     for 
this    narrative. 


PREFACE 

Father  Price,  the  subject  of  this  little 
book,  would  shrink  at  the  idea  of  its  pub- 
lication. We  who  knew  and  loved  him  have 
felt,  however,  that  it  is  good  to  manifest  to 
others  the  light  of  his  splendid  faith  and  the 
strength  of  his  untiring  zeal.  We  need  the 
spectacle  of  such  souls  as  his,  and  only  wish 
that  more  material  could  have  been  gathered 
and  more  of  the  words  that  fell  from  his 
priestly  lips  preserved. 

—  James  A.  Walsh 
Superior  of  Mary  knoll 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CHAPTKR   I 
Early  Days  3 


CHAPTER  II 
North  Carolina  Mission 17 

CHAPTER  III 

IM.VRYKNOLL  ApOSTOLATE 45 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Man  of  God 71 


is 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Father  Price Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Alfred  Lanier  Price 4 

Clarissa  Bond  Price 12 

Father  Price  as  a  Seminarian 26 

North  Carolina  Days 4o 

St.  Thomas'  Church,  Wilmington 54 

The  MaryknoU  Mission  Compound 66 

St.  Mary's  Church,  Goldsboro 78 

Father  Price's  Grave 90 


XI 


FOREWORD 

From  "The  Catholic  Transcript,"  Hartford,  Connecticut: 

"  Not  since  the  passing  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier  has  an  event  of  more  striking  import 
to  the  Christian  Church  taken  place  in  the 
Far  East,  than  that  which  occurred  there 
recently  in  the  death  of  Reverend  Thomas 
F.  Price,  of  the  American  Foreign  Missions. 

"  Other  missioners,  some  of  whom  won 
the  martyr's  crown,  have  died  at  their  posts 
in  the  Orient,  but  they  were  representative 
of  older  missionary  movements,  and  their 
deaths,  however  heroic,  were  only  incidents 
and  episodes  in  the  long  history  of  an  estab- 
lished order.  Father  Price  was  a  pioneer 
and  a  harbinger  of  new  and  great  things  to 
come. 

"  The  work  and  the  movement  which  he 
represented  Is  In  Its  Infancy,  but  it  is  already 
big  and  mighty  with  promise.  '  The  blood 
of  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church  ':  an- 
tiquity has  sent  us  this  message  —  a  message 

xui 


FOREWORD 


which  carries  us  back  to  the  days  of  persecu- 
tion, when  heroes  rushed  to  death  in  support 
of  the  doctrines  which  they  were  sent  to  pro- 
claim. It  is  a  true  and  inspiring  saying,  one 
of  the  sacred  heritages  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

"If  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  fecund, 
why  not  the  labors,  the  anxious  vigils,  the 
sacrifices,  and  the  moral  heroism  of  those 
who  leave  all  to  go  forth  to  proclaim  the 
gospel  of  the  Crucified?  Are  not  all  these 
things,  and  the  hidden  things  of  the  apos- 
tle's spirit,  a  source  of  divine  fecundity?  It 
must  be  so,  for  with  God,  and  before  His 
tribunal,  nothing  is  lost,  and  ^  to  those  who 
love  God  all  things  work  together  for 
good.' 

"  As  the  ashes  of  this  devoted  apostle  be- 
come compounded  with  the  dust  of  China, 
the  missioners  of  Maryknoll  will  feel  that 
they  have  a  special  claim  to  the  soil  of  the 
Orient.  The  seeds  of  a  new  apostolate  are 
planted  there  —  the  seed  from  which  an 
abundant  soul-harvest  is  to  follow. 

xiv 


FOREWORD 


"  The  story  of  the  life  of  this  apostle  is 
briefly  told.  It  was  a  life  wholly  spent  in 
the  conquest  of  souls.  He  was  a  good  man, 
absolutely  devoted  to  the  regeneration  of  his 
fellows,  a  man  of  mortification  and  of  high 
and  serene  converse  with  Heaven,  one  of 
the  most  austere  and  self-effacing  priests 
that  have  ever  illustrated  the  clerical  body 
of  the  United  States.  If  there  is  a  crown 
for  heroic  sacrifice,  and  if  the  voice  of  the 
apostle  has  a  peculiar  potency,  MaryknoU 
has  an  irresistible  intercessor  before  the 
Throne  of  Grace." 


XV 


V 


EARLY   DAYS 


FATHER     PRICE 
OF    MARYKNOLL 


EARLY  DATS 

1^  EVEREND  THOMAS  FREDER- 
Jl^  ICK  price,  the  fifth  son  of  Alfred 
Lanier  Price  and  Clarissa  Bond  Price,  was 
born  on  August  19,  i860.  Most  of  his  an- 
cestors were  among  the  early  English  immi- 
grants who  settled  in  North  Carolina,  but 
there  was  also  a  trace  of  Irish  blood  in  the 
family,  from  an  ancestor  named  Brady. 
The  Bonds  and  the  Prices  are  well-respected 
families  living  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
state,  the  home  of  the  family  on  the  ma- 
ternal side  being  near  Bath,  the  oldest  town 
in  North  Carolina.  One  member  of  this 
family  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolution. 

Mr.  Alfred  Lanier  Price  was  editor  for 
a  time  of  a  newspaper  in  Washington,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia.     Later  he  became  well- 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

known  as  the  able  editor  of  the  Wilmington 
Daily  Journal,  the  first  daily  paper  in  the 
state,  published  in  Wilmington,  North  Car- 
olina, from  1848  to  1872.  Mr.  Price,  like 
all  the  other  members  of  the  Price  family, 
was  an  Episcopalian,  but  shortly  before  his 
death,  moved  by  the  good  example  of  his 
devout  wife  and  his  children,  he  embraced 
the  true  Faith. 

Miss  Clara  Bond  was  converted  from 
Methodism  when  eighteen  years  of  age.  For 
a  long  time  she  had  been  attracted  to  the 
Catholic  Faith  but  had  found  our  devotion 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin  a  real  stumbling  block 
to  her  acceptance.  God  took  pity  on  her 
honest  fears  and  gave  her  the  grace,  not  only 
of  belief,  but  also  of  most  devoted  love  for 
our  Holy  Mother,  —  a  love  that  she  in  turn 
kindled  in  the  hearts  of  her  children  and  that 
found  its  most  ardent  expression  in  the  life 
of  Father  Price.  Because  of  her  conversion, 
Miss  Bond  was  compelled  to  leave  home,  her 
father  disinheriting  her.  She  was  also  pre- 
vented by  the  same  indignant  parent  from 

4 


ALFRED    LAMER    PRICE.    FATHER    OF 
FATHER    PRICE 


EARLT  DATS 


entering  a  convent  in  Charleston,  where  she 
wished  to  prepare  for  the  religious  life.  It 
seems  to  have  been  God's  design  that  she 
should  enter  the  married  state  instead,  for 
three  of  her  children  consecrated  themselves 
to  God,  her  two  oldest  daughters  becoming 
nuns  and  one  son  a  priest. 

Sent  away  from  her  father's  house,  Miss 
Bond  moved  to  Washington,  a  thriving  town 
on  the  Pamlico  River  a  few  miles  above  her 
mother's  home,  and  there  took  up  her 
residence  with  Doctor  Gallagher's  family. 
Doctor  Gallagher  had  come  from  Phila- 
delphia and  his  was  one  of  the  two  or  three 
devout  Catholic  families  then  living  in 
Washington.  It  was  in  this  city  that  Miss 
Bond  met  and  later  married  Mr.  Price. 
Shortly  after  their  marriage  they  moved  to 
Wilmington,  which  became  their  permanent 
residence. 

God  blessed  the  couple  with  ten  children, 
five  boys  and  five  girls.  The  two  oldest 
daughters  became  religious  in  the  commu- 
nity of  Our  Lady  of  Mercy,  founded  by 

5 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MARY  KNOLL 

Bishop  England,  the  first  Bishop  of  Charles- 
ton. One  of  the  religious,  Sister  Mary 
Catherine,  is  still  living  at  the  mother-house 
in  Belmont  j  the  other,  Sister  Agnes,  died 
while  young.  Sister  Catherine  is  one  of 
the  oldest  members  of  the  community, 
but  she  is  still  noted  for  her  zeal  and  her 
great  willingness  to  work  for  God's  poor. 

In  gratitude  for  his  hospitality  when  she 
sorely  needed  it,  and  mindful  of  the  impres- 
sions she  had  received  from  the  edifying 
lives  of  Doctor  Thomas  Frederick  Gal- 
lagher and  his  devoted  wife,  Mrs.  Price 
wished  one  of  her  children  to  be  named 
after  him.  Accordingly  the  name  of  Thomas 
Frederick  was  given  to  Father  Price,  in 
memory  of  the  conscientious  physician  who 
preached  the  Faith  by  living  the  life  of  a 
practical  apostle  in  the  midst  of  thousands  of 
our  separated  brethren,  when  the  open  pro- 
fession of  the  Catholic  Faith  by  a  gentleman 
in  a  public  position  meant  not  only  the  loss 
of  much  desirable  patronage,  but  also  social 
ostracism. 

6 


EARLT  DATS 


Mrs.  Price  is  remembered  in  Wilmington 
as  a  very   modest,   devout,   and   charitable 
woman.    The  venerable  Monsignor  Mackin, 
of  Washington,  bears  witness  to  this  state- 
ment, for  on  one  occasion  when,  as  a  young 
lad,  he  entered  a  Catholic  church  in  Wil- 
mington and  knelt  before  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment in  prayer  and  adoration,  he  was  very 
much   edified   by   the   deep   reverence   and 
gracious  modesty  of  a  lady  who  was  fixing 
the  altar.     He  afterwards  learned  that  this 
was  Mrs.  Price.     By  those  who  knew  her, 
she  was  regarded  as  a  saint.    She  spent  much 
time  in  prayer,  and  all  the  rest  of  it  in  good 
works.     She  asked  God  to  give  her  children 
trials  to  perfect  them,  to  let  them  have  their 
purgatory  on  this  earth,  and  to  take  them 
out  of  life  if  they  should  be  in  danger  of 
losing  their  souls,  —  if  such  were  His  Holy 
Will. 

In  the  ages  of  faith,  good  Catholic  mothers 
prayed  and  promised  God  that,  if  He  blessed 
them  with  offspring,  and  their  offspring  were 
acceptable   to   Him,   they   would   only   too 

7 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

gladly  consecrate  them  to  His  service.  So 
Mrs.  Price  prayed,  and  no  doubt  the  prayers 
and  sacrifices  of  this  saintly  mother  obtained 
from  God  the  priceless  vocation  vouchsafed 
to  her  son.  Thomas  Frederick  Price  never 
forgot  the  early  training  he  received  from 
his  mother.  The  seed  of  piety  that  she 
planted  gave  forth  an  early  shoot  and  its 
growth  was  ever  fostered  by  the  serious, 
prayerful  lad.  Father  Mark  Gross,  whose 
litany  of  good  works  and  charities  to  God's 
poor  is  still  said  by  the  tried  and  faithful 
Catholics  scattered  over  the  Carolina  mis- 
sions, one  day  asked  young  Thomas  Fred- 
erick if  he  intended  studying  for  the  priest- 
hood. 

"  Yes,  Father,"  was  the  immediate  reply. 

*^  Then,  Thomas,"  said  the  holy  and 
zealous  missioner,  "  you  should  begin  say- 
ing daily  five  Our  Fathers  and  five  Hail 
Marys  to  become  a  good  priest." 

To  this  young  Thomas  —  more  often 
called  by  his  second  name  —  replied,  in  the 
innocence  that  bespoke  the  mother's  whole- 

8 


EARLY  DATS 


some  influence  on  the  heart  of  her  son, 
"  Father,  I  have  done  that  for  a  long  time." 

Father  Price,  when  a  boy,  was  a  quiet  little 
fellow.  His  sister  Mary  says:  "  Sometimes 
I  can  still  see  dear  little  Freddie,  with  his 
little  white  head  and  his  sweet  little  face  5 
quiet  and  unobtrusive  in  his  manner,  obedi- 
ent and  polite.  When  at  home,  he  was 
always  reading."  And  it  seems  that  youth- 
ful Fred's  favorite  attitude  while  reading 
was  "  on  his  back." 

He  never  attended  secular  schools,  but  be- 
gan at  a  little  Catholic  school  taught  by  his 
two  older  sisters,  Mary  and  Margaret,  who 
later  became  Sisters  Catherine  and  Agnes  of 
the  Mercy  Convent.  After  his  sisters  gave 
up  their  school,  Frederick  attended  a  boys' 
school  taught  by  the  priests  in  the  basement 
of  the  church.  When  he  was  about  fifteen 
years  of  age,  he  resolved  to  go  to  Baltimore 
to  be  educated  for  the  priesthood. 

It  is  of  faith,  that  God's  providential  care 
is  over  all  but  it  is  in  a  special  manner  over 
those   who   have   served    Him    from    their 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

youth.  This  providential  care  was  early 
manifested  in  the  life  of  young  Frederick 
Price.  On  Saturday,  September  i6,  1876, 
he  sailed  from  Wilmington,  on  the  steamer 
Rebecca  Clyde,  for  Baltimore.  After  a  very 
stormy  night,  the  ship  was  wrecked  off  Ocra- 
coke  Inlet,  Cape  Hatteras.  The  captain, 
mate,  and  nearly  all  the  crew  were  lost. 
Frederick  Price,  with  some  others,  clung  to 
the  wreck  until  every  vestige  disappeared. 
He  was  not  able  to  swim  and  death  seemed 
imminent.  As  he  sank  in  the  sea,  he  prom- 
ised the  Blessed  Virgin  that  if  his  life  were 
spared  he  would  devote  every  moment  and 
every  action  of  it  to  her. 

At  once  he  seemed  lifted  up,  and  as  he 
rose  to  the  surface  he  grasped  a  spar  that 
floated  near.  Another  survivor  grasped  the 
other  end  of  it  and  began  to  curse  most  hor- 
ribly. He  was  ordered  to  stop  and  to  thank 
God  for  the  chance  to  escape.  Clinging  to 
the  plank,  the  two  drifted  for  several  hours. 
Then,  when  almost  overcome  with  exhaus- 
tion, they  were  picked  up.  Young  Price  was 

ID 


EARLY  DATS 


believed  to  be  dead,  but  restoratives  brought 
him  to,  and  he  was  able  the  next  day  to  re- 
turn to  Wilmington  and  his  family.  The 
Star  of  the  Sea,  so  fervently  addressed  in  that 
hour  of  anguish,  had  come  to  the  rescue  of 
her  loving  son  who,  she  knew,  was  to  culti- 
vate in  his  own  soul  and  to  propagate  in  the 
hearts  of  many  others  an  especial  devotion 
to  her  Immaculate  Conception. 

Owing  to  the  consequences  of  a  fever  that 
followed  upon  the  exposure  and  exhaustion, 
Frederick  Price  was  unable  to  attend  college 
at  once.  However,  in  February  of  the  fol- 
lowing year,  he  began  his  preparatory  studies 
at  St.  Charles'  College,  Ellicott  City,  Mary- 
land, where  he  continued  as  a  student  until 
his  graduation  in  1881.  During  those  years 
financial  hardships  fell  upon  the  family  and 
they  had  to  face  many  privations  j  but  the 
brave  and  devoted  mother  made  every  sacri- 
fice that  her  son  might  continue  his  prepara- 
tion for  the  priesthood. 

Shortly  before  receiving  the  subdiaconate, 
as  a  result  of  illness  Frederick  Price  became 

II 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

deaf  and  he  entertained  great  fears  that  this 
affliction  would  bar  him  from  the  priesthood. 
He  immediately  made  a  novena  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  and  at  its  close  his  deafness 
left  him,  never  again  to  return. 

On  September  12,  1881,  he  entered  St. 
Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore,  for  the  study 
of  philosophy,  scripture,  and  theology.  On 
M^y  3O5  i^^ij  1^^  received  subdeaconship 
from  the  Most  Reverend  James  Gibbons, 
D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  who,  as  a 
young  priest,  had  labored  among  the  people 
of  the  Carolinas  and  whose  Mass  Frederick 
Price  had  often  served  in  his  native  town  of 
Wilmington. 

Meantime,  however,  his  mother's  health 
had  been  failing.  Although  it  had  been  her 
dearest  wish  and  her  constant  prayer  that  she 
should  live  to  see  her  son  ascend  the  altar, 
God  ordained  otherwise,  for  she  died  in 
August,  1885.  There  is  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  she  quickly  passed  into  the  realm 
of  the  blessed,  there  to  be  nearer  her  priestly 
son,  and  more  powerful  in  her  prayers  for 

12 


CLARISSA    BOXD    PRICE,    MOTHER    OF 
FATHER    PRICE 


EARLT  DATS 


him,  than  she  could  ever  have  been  on  earth. 
Theirs  was  the  communion  of  the  saints,  in- 
tensitied  in  a  mutual  and  absolute  devotion 
to  the  Immaculate  Conception. 

That  her  intercession  availed  much  before 
the  throne  of  God  can  be  gathered  from  the 
following  incidents.  Father  Moore,  Mrs. 
Price's  pastor  and  a  very  holy  man,  had  be- 
come partially  paralyzed  and  blind,  so  that 
he  could  no  longer  read  Mass  but  had  to  con- 
tent himself  reciting  the  prayers  he  knew  by 
heart.  Shortly  before  her  death,  he  said  to 
her:  "  Mrs.  Price,  you  will  soon  be  with 
Almighty  God,  and  when  you  see  Him  I 
want  you  to  ask  Him  to  give  me  my  eyesight 
so  that  I  may  be  able  to  read  the  Holy 
Masses."  The  morning  after  she  died,  he 
opened  the  Missal  and  read  the  Mass  for  the 
day.  He  then  went  to  the  family  and  told 
them  not  to  grieve  for  Mrs.  Price,  as  she  was 
with  God.  Not  long  afterwards,  Mrs.  Price's 
little  grandson,  eight  years  old,  was  at  Mass 
with  his  mother.  Suddenly  he  screamed  and 
fainted  and  had  to  be  taken  out  of  the  church. 

13 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

On  becoming  conscious  he  exclaimed,  "  O 
Mamma,  I  saw  Grandma!  She  was  sitting 
over  the  high  altar,  and  a  man  sitting  on  one 
side  and  a  beautiful  lady  on  the  other  side, 
all  dressed  in  spangles.  And,  O  Mamma, 
Grandma  was  so  pretty!  "  Pope  Pius  IX, 
through  the  venerable  and  learned  Doctor 
Corcoran,  pronounced  the  Price  family, 
"  the  holy  family." 

On  December  19,  1885,  Frederick  Price 
received  deaconship  from  Archbishop  Gib- 
bons. The  following  summer  he  returned  to 
his  native  city,  Wilmington,  and  on  June  30, 
1886,  was  ordained  by  the  Right  Reverend 
H.  P.  Northrop,  D.D.,  Vicar-Apostolic  of 
North  Carolina.  Two  other  candidates  were 
ordained  at  the  same  time.  Father  Price  was 
the  first  North  Carolinian  to  become  a  priest. 


H 


II 

NORTH    CAROLINA    MISSION 


II 

NORTH  CAROLINA  MISSION 

^^nHE  new  priest  was  not  long  blessed 
^^y  with  the  privileges  of  curacy.  The 
pastor.  Father  Patrick  Moore,  having  been 
given  a  vacation  to  visit  his  old  home  in 
Ireland  that  summer,  Father  Price  was  left 
in  charge  of  the  parish  during  his  absence, 
and  on  his  return  was  assigned  to  work  in 
the  rural  districts.  His  early  missionary 
days  were  spent  over  the  whole  eastern 
section  of  the  state,  east  of  Raleigh  and 
north  of  Wilmington,  a  district  of  about 
three  hundred  square  miles.  He  was  once 
introduced  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Balti- 
more, by  Abbe  Magnien,  in  this  way: 
"  Gentlemen,  behold  the  secular  clergy  of 
North  Carolina!  " 

In  1888,  Father  Price  was  placed  in  charge 
of  St.  Paul's  Church,  New  Bern,  North  Caro- 
lina, and  its  seventeen  or  more  attached  mis- 
sions.    Included  in  these  towns  was  Golds- 

17 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

boro,  where  there  was  no  church  but  an 
excellent  and  valuable  lot  purchased  by  his 
predecessor.  Reverend  J.  J.  Reilly.  Father 
Price  at  once  set  about  the  difficult  task  of 
building  a  church. 

Those  were  days  of  intense  prejudice 
against  everything  Catholic,  and  he  had  only 
a  handful  of  Catholics  to  assist  him,  yet  he 
inaugurated  a  fair.  His  personality  soon  won 
many  friends  for  the  cause  so  close  to  his 
heart,  especially  among  the  Jewish  citizens 
of  Goldsboro,  who  generously  supported 
him.  In  fact,  the  Jewish  workers  so  out- 
numbered the  Catholics  that  a  prominent 
Hebrew  gentleman  advanced  the  question: 
"  Is  this  a  Jew  fair  or  a  Catholic  fair?  "  The 
enterprise  netted  the  truly  phenomenal  sum 
of  $1600.  Friends  in  Philadelphia  also 
came  to  Father  Price's  assistance,  so  that  he 
was  able  to  erect  his  church,  —  an  attractive 
building,  for  years  one  of  the  few  Catholic 
churches  made  of  brick  in  North  Carolina. 
At  the  time,  Father  Price  was  oflFered  a 
marble  altar  for  the  Goldsboro  church  by  a 

18 


NORTH   CAROLINA  MISSION 

Northern  lady,  on  the  condition  that  she  be 
permitted  to  name  the  church.  Father  Price 
announced  that  he  could  not  allow  any  one 
to  name  his  first  church.  This  was  his  op- 
portunity to  express  his  great  devotion  to  the 
Mother  of  God,  and  he  called  it  St.  Mary^s, 

Some  of  the  hardships  endured  on  the 
pioneer  missions  of  North  Carolina  are  re- 
vealed by  the  following  facts.  For  years 
Father  Price  was  wont  to  go  by  rail  from 
Goldsboro  to  Mount  Olive,  where  he  would 
be  met  by  a  zealous  lay  helper,  Mordecai 
Jones,  a  convert  to  the  Faith,  who  would 
drive  Father  Price  twenty-one  miles  to  New- 
ton Grove,  where  the  two  would  remain 
from  Saturday  until  Wednesday.  Then  they 
would  travel  by  buggy  twenty-seven  miles  to 
the  country  church  of  The  Good  Shepherd, 
situated  in  the  wilds  of  Duplin  County.  This 
church  had  been  dedicated  by  Bishop  Gib- 
bons with  Father  Price  acting  as  altar  boy 
at  the  ceremony. 

After  a  two  days'  stay,  Mordecai  Jones' 
buggy  would  carry  Father  Price  forty  miles' 

19 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

distance  to  Chinquapin,  where  there  was  the 
nucleus  of  a  Catholic  settlement.  At  that 
point  Father  Price  placed  a  lay  teacher  and 
built  a  small  school.  He  used  to  stay  with  a 
poor  family  who  occupied  a  two-room  house 
made  of  logs  plastered  together  with  mud. 
In  this  cabin  Father  Price  slept  on  sheepskins 
in  place  of  a  mattress.  He  celebrated  Mass 
in  the  school. 

Mordecai  Jones  relates  that  those  long 
trips  were  made  in  mud  and  ice,  and  that  at 
times  both  Father  Price  and  himself  suffered 
intense  pain  from  the  cold  and  inclement 
weather.  On  one  occasion  Father  Price  sug- 
gested the  recitation  of  the  rosary  for  the  in- 
tention that  they  might  escape  freezing. 
From  Chinquapin,  Mordecai  would  drive 
Father  Price  fifteen  miles  to  a  railroad  sta- 
tion, from  which  he,  Mordecai,  would  travel 
the  long  distance  to  his  home  near  the  Church 
of  the  Good  Shepherd  alone. 

Later  on  Father  Price  purchased  a  horse, 
which  he  left  at  Goldsboro  and  which  he 
used  in  traveling  the  twenty-seven  miles  to 

20 


NORTH   CAROLINA   MISSION 


Newton  Grove.  This  horse  bore  the  name 
of  Nancy  Hanks.  It  was  a  difficult  matter 
to  start  Nancy y  and  at  times  equally  difficult 
to  stop  her.  Father  Price  was  accustomed  to 
make  purchases  in  Goldsboro  for  his  Newton 
Grove  parishioners,  who  lived  eighteen  miles 
from  the  nearest  town,  —  Newton  Grove  it- 
self being  not  a  town  but  a  thickly  settled 
country  section.  Once  he  left  Goldsboro 
with  a  large  cargo,  —  coffee,  sugar,  calico, 
and  a  supply  of  church  vestments.  Father 
Price  mounted  the  buggy  and  resorted  to  his 
usual  feat  of  starting  Nancy  by  having  a  by- 
stander throw  sand  in  her  mouth.  She  started 
at  a  terrific  pace,  and  continued  the  entire 
journey  with  ugly  vengeance.  Finally, 
Father  Price,  the  buggy,  and  Nancy  Hanks 
reached  Newton  Grove.  All  else  had  been 
lost  along  the  road,  —  a  dozen  bottles  of 
altar  wine,  a  cope  and  other  vestments,  not 
to  mention  the  merchandise  he  had  essayed 
to  deliver. 

Father  Price  in  those  days  was  devoted, 
tireless,  energetic,  gay,  mortified,  and  a  deep 

21 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

lover  of  holy  poverty.  He  cared  nothing 
for  his  own  comfort,  and  had  the  stomach  of 
a  goat  and  a  constitution  of  iron.  He  loved 
the  poor  and  lowly.  He  catechised  every- 
where, followed  up  his  neophytes  in  corn  and 
cotton  fields,  instructed  under  trees,  at  fence 
corners,  and  on  tree  stumps,  ate  the  coarsest 
of  food  with  laughing  relish,  took  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  negroes,  and  always  had  the 
most  contagious  gaiety. 

He  understood  Southern  religious  preju- 
dices and  limitations  better,  perhaps,  than  any 
other  priest  in  America,  and  was  respected  by 
the  most  crude  backwoodsmen  as  well  as  by 
the  better  class,  although  they  had  otherwise 
no  use  for  anything  Catholic.  He  made 
allowance  for  their  prejudices  and  never  re- 
sented their  convictions  about  the  Faith. 
They  thought  him  a  good  man,  although  a 
Catholic,  and  felt  that  there  was  nothing 
stilted  about  him.  They  observed  his  care- 
less and  poor  dress,  and  saw  that  he  was  not 
particular  as  to  the  size  and  shape  of  the  hat 
he   wore   or   the   quality   of   his   shoes,    or 

22 


NORTH  CAROLINA  MISSION 

bothered  whether  his  trousers  were  of  the 
required  length  and  the  latest  mode.  They 
agreed  with  him  that  razorback  bacon  with 
plenty  of  juice,  gritty  cornbread  made  with 
water,  and  coffee,  were  fit  for  anyone  on 
earth.  He  entered  into  the  affairs  of  hogs, 
corn,  and  cotton,  as  one  to  the  manner  born, 
and  they  realized  that  "  Mr.  Priest  "  was  a 
"  tar  heel  "  like  themselves.  He  was  criti- 
cised for  one  fault  only,  —  "  he  drove  his 
horse  too  fast,"  so  they  said,  and  tore  down 
the  roads  like  a  wild  man,  oblivious  of  the 
wonder  of  the  slow-going  country  folk.  He 
was  after  souls  and  wanted  to  get  there. 

It  was  often  asserted  by  the  backwoods 
congregations  that  "  Priest  Price "  verily 
believed  what  he  preached.  There  was  noth- 
ing of  the  fashionable  preacher  about  him. 
He  was  not  eloquent  and  never  went  outside 
the  themes  of  the  plain  Gospel  to  try  to 
captivate  the  fancy  of  his  audience.  His 
language  was  grave  and  not  dramatic,  but  it 
touched  the  thought  of  others,  and  his  simple 
and  poor  life  flashed  on  his  hearers.     They 

23 


FATHER   PRICE   OF  MART  KNOLL 

reckoned  him  a  "  powerful  preacher,"  and, 
when  they  were  in  the  mood,  he  preached 
as  long  as  they  wished,  which  was  much  over 
an  hour.  "  Christ  and  Him  Crucified  "  were 
his  frequent  subjects  of  inspiration,  and 
something  generous,  honest,  and  sincere 
seemed  to  radiate  from  him.  The  most  illit- 
erate white  or  black  people  understood  him. 
He  impressed  them  with  the  ringing  truths 
of  eternal  life  that  came  from  his  lips.  He 
gave  them  plenty  to  think  about,  and  they 
did  not  forget  the  divine  message  when  he 
had  finished. 

Besides  the  church  at  Goldsboro,  Father 
Price  built  also  those  at  Halifax  and  Naz- 
areth, and  enlarged  the  church  at  Newton 
Grove.  While  exercising  the  nominal  rec- 
torship of  the  Sacred  Heart  Church,  Raleigh, 
to  which  he  was  appointed  in  1895,  he  spent 
his  time  in  giving  missions  to  non-Catholics 
throughout  the  state,  and  in  working  up  plans 
for  his  projected  missionary  activity.* 

*  The  first  aid  Father  Price  obtained  ab  externo  in 
carrying  on  these  missions  to  non-Catholics  in  the  Caro- 

24 


NORTH   CAROLINA  MISSION 


Recognizing  the  value  of  the  apostolate  of 
the  press,  Father  Price  decided  that  the  writ- 
ten should  supplement  the  oral  word,  and 
that  an  apologetic  magazine  would  be  a 
most  effective  means  of  removing  doubt, 
superstition,  and  ignorance  j  developing  a 
healthy  curiosity  about  the  Faith  j  securing 
a  proper  respect  for  the  Catholic  Church  and 
its  adherents  J  and  so  paving  the  way  for  con- 
versions. The  magazine  would  prepare  the 
field  j  then  missioners  should  go  about,  teach- 
ing, preaching,  doing  good,  meeting  the 
people  personally,  defending  the  Faith,  and 
explaining  its  doctrines  to  the  individual. 
The  two-fold  combination  of  a  magazine 
that  would  reach  all,  and  missioners  who 
would  reach  each  one,  seemed  to  Father 
Price  not  only  a  logical,  but  the  only,  solution 
of  the  peculiar  problem  offered  by  the  South. 
Burning  with  zeal  for  souls,  eager  to  be 
about  his  Father's  business,  his  enthusiasm 
was  infectious  and  he  had  no  difficulty  secur- 

llnas  was  from  the  Apostolic  Mission  House  at  the  Catho- 
lic University,  Washington. 

25 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

ing  permission  to  make  the  first  steps  in  his 
apostolic  program. 

Accordingly,  the  magazine,  Truth,  was 
started.  At  first  it  was  printed  from  a 
Raleigh  printery,  but  later  the  editor  got 
an  old  printing  machine  and  did  the  work, 
with  poor  help,  in  the  kitchen  of  the  rectory. 
The  congregation  used  to  help  by  donations, 
folding  the  magazine,  securing  subscriptions, 
and  so  forth.  Often,  like  Bishop  England, 
he  had  to  do  most  of  the  labor  connected 
with  the  publication,  save  that  he  did  not  ac- 
tually set  the  type,  as  the  great  John  of 
Charleston  had  to  do.  As  the  time  for 
publication  approached.  Father  Price  could 
always  be  seen  with  bundles  of  manuscripts 
bulging  from  his  coat-pockets  as  he  raced  to 
catch  a  train.  He  was  never  a  minute  ahead 
for  a  train,  but  somehow  he  always  used  to 
make  it.  Many  a  time  he  told  how  he 
used  to  catch  trains  in  the  country,  between 
stations.  He  would  run  to  the  top  of  a  hill 
near  the  track,  and  whistle  and  yell  to  the 
engineer.      The   engineer   would   bring  the 

26 


FATHER    PRICE    AS    A    SEMIXARIAX 


NORTH   CAROLINA   MISSION 


train  to  a  halt  and  wait  for  Father  Price  to 
get  aboard.  Then  "  the  bell  would  whistle 
and  off  she'd  go  again." 

Father  Price  corrected  his  manuscript  and 
jotted  down  his  ideas  on  trains,  in  the  dim 
waiting-rooms  of  country  stations,  or  by  the 
faint  and  flickering  light  of  an  ill-smelling 
lamp  in  some  shack  on  the  missions.  He 
never  made  a  cent  on  the  paper,  save  by  its 
indirect  appeal,  and  he  sent  free  copies 
broadcast  to  enlighten  the  ignorant  and  con- 
vert the  prejudiced.  Generous  souls  who 
knew  his  unselfish  aims  usually  came  to  the 
rescue  and  helped  to  pay  the  printing  bills. 
It  is  undisputed  that  this  journal  brought 
light  and  faith  into  many  isolated  non- 
Catholic  homes  in  the  South  and  West,  and 
had  Father  Price  restricted  his  apostolic  zeal 
to  Truth  alone,  he  would  have  served  his 
generation  well. 

The  second  step  in  the  apostolic  program 
was  more  difficult,  namely,  the  supplying  of 
missioners  who  would  cultivate  the  ground 
prepared  by  the  press.     Because  of  constant 

27 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 


and  ever-increasing  demands  in  other  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  it  was  obvious  that  no 
sufficient  supply  of  priests  could  be  secured 
from  without  the  state.  In  the  state,  vo- 
cations were  pitifully  insufficient.  After  much 
thought  and  prayer,  Father  Price  conceived 
the  plan  of  establishing  a  Catholic  orphan- 
age and  boys'  school,  where  some  day  voca- 
tions might  be  found  and  developed. 

The  required  permission  being  secured, 
the  next  steps  were  to  determine  the  location 
and  to  secure  the  funds  for  the  apostolic 
nursery.  In  1897,  after  considering  many 
sites.  Father  Price  bought  a  large  tract  of 
land  at  the  place  now  called  Nazarethy  and 
on  Rosary  Sunday,  October,  1899,  he  took 
possession.  The  Sisters  of  Mercy  from  Bel- 
mont were  his  coadjutors  in  this  establish- 
ment of  an  orphan  asylum,  —  the  first  mis- 
sionary work  undertaken  at  that  point. 

The  beginnings  at  Nazareth  were  very 
humble.  The  buildings  were  plain  wooden 
farm  houses  and  the  furnishings  were  ex- 
tremely simple.     The  orphan  boys  were  the 

28 


NORTH   CAROLINA   MISSION 


most  abject  specimens  imaginable,  but  they 
were  better  off  under  the  care  of  Sister  Cath- 
erine Price  and  her  devoted  helpers  than 
they  would  have  been  in  their  own  natural 
surroundings.  Things  were  very  poor  at 
Nazareth  in  its  beginning,  but  love  reigned. 
Father  Price  looked  seedy,  and  the  poor 
sisters'  black  habits  were  tattered  and  torn 
and  patched,  and  stained  with  spots  which 
would  not  come  out.  Their  hands  were  red, 
and  their  knuckles  and  fingers  enlarged  with 
labor,  but  joy  and  prayer  were  in  the  air  and 
happiness  reigned  supreme. 

From  those  early  days  —  open,  no  doubt, 
to  criticism  —  great  and  difficult  good  has 
come.  A  magnificent  tract  of  land  had 
been  secured,  a  beginning  was  made.  The 
housing  was  almost  as  poor  as  at  Bethlehem  ^ 
but  the  splendid  orphan  asylum  for  boys  that 
the  Vicariate  now  has  at  Nazareth,  with  its 
English  Gothic  brick  buildings  and  its  tenant 
village  scattered  about,  is  the  natural  fruition 
of  that  work  which  Father  Price  started 
there  twenty-three  years  ago. 

29 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

In  June,  1900,  Father  Price  received  his 
first  assistant,  in  the  person  of  Reverend 
Michael  A.  Irwin,  just  ordained.  Father 
Irwin  (now  Pastor  of  Newton  Grove,  North 
Carolina)  relates  that  he  found  at  Nazareth 
a  marvelous  collection  of  the  most  pitiful 
children  he  had  ever  seen:  puny,  malformed, 
wretched  little  children,  the  poorest  of  the 
poor.     Father  Price,  he  said,  had  a  "  nose 

* 

for  the  poor,  a  talent  for  finding  the  most 
needy."  If  God  exalts  the  humble,  what  is 
now  the  glory  of  him  who  "  emptied  him- 
self "  to  become  the  spiritual  father  of  that 
pitiful  brood  that  he  managed,  with  smiling 
gaiety,  to  gather  to  himself  on  the  hills  of 
Nazareth? 

The  boys  at  Nazareth,  after  school  hours, 
folded  and  cut  the  leaves  of  the  magazine, 
Truthy  which  was  printed  there  for  several 
years. 

In  1 90 1  Father  Price  acquired  a  fine  prop- 
erty on  the  other  side  of  the  road,  and  at 
once  set  about  gathering  funds  for  the  erec- 
tion of  a  church  and  what  he  planned  to  be 

30 


NORTH   CAROLINA   MISSION 

the  home  of  his  Apostolate.  For  two  years 
he  was  absent  a  great  part  of  the  time,  so- 
liciting funds  in  the  North,  where  he  met 
with  marked  success  because  of  the  universal 
admiration  that  his  character  and  his  cause 
commanded.  The  priests'  house,  or  Regina 
Apostolorum,  as  it  was  called,  was  built  in 
the  winter  of  1 901— 1902,  and  the  church 
about  six  months  later.  Both  structures  were 
of  brick.  The  church,  of  a  fine  design  in 
"  country  Gothic,"  still  stands,  but  the  Regina 
Apostolorum,  not  satisfactory  in  lay-out,  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  the  spring  of  1906. 
Father  Price  at  once  began  to  build  the  fine 
fire-proof  edifice  that  housed  the  Apostolate 
until  his  departure  from  North  Carolina, 
and  that  now  serves  as  a  convent  and  orphan 
asylum. 

In  February,  1901,  Father  Price  re- 
ceived his  second  assistant.  Reverend  Wil- 
liam F.  O'Brien  (later  pastor  of  the  Im- 
maculate Conception  Church  at  Durham, 
North  Carolina).  Father  O'Brien  found  in 
the  cornerstone  of  the  priests'  house,  when 

31 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

it  was  burned  in  1906,  the  following  letter, 
which  Father  Price  had  thought  would  not 
be  read  for  many  years: 

This  stone  has  been  blessed  by  the  Reverend 
Thomas  F.  Price,  on  April  21,  1902.  The  Right 
Reverend  Leo  Haid,  O.S.B.,  D.D.,  was  to  have 
blessed  it  yesterday  v^^hen  blessing  the  cornerstone 
of  the  church,  but  omitted  it  through  fatigue. 
All  the  children  of  the  orphanage,  thirty-tw^o  in 
number,  participated,  singing  hymns,  etc.,  as  well 
as  Fathers  O'Brien,  Irwin,  and  Thomas  Staple- 
ton.  This  building  begins  the  manifestation  of 
a  design  for  a  religious  order  which  has  been  held 
through  many  years  of  toil,  sacrifice,  and  prayer. 
If  God  blesses  it  to  succeed  (and  may  it  fail  if 
the  Divine  Majesty  so  desires!),  it  will  cover 
every  diocese  of  the  globe. 

This  building  is  consecrated  to  the  Queen  of 
the  Apostles,  in  consequence  of  a  vow  made  by  the 
writer  to  our  loved  Blessed  Mother,  that  if  it  come 
to  success  it  would  be  hers  —  named  after  her. 
May  Jesus,  the  sweetest  love  of  our  hearts,  be 
praised,  adored,  and  forever  blessed!  May  our 
loved  Mother  be  praised  and  blessed   forever! 

T.  F.  Price 

32 


NORTH  CAROLINA  MISSION 


Finally,  with  over  two  score  of  neophytes 
(the  most  promising  of  the  orphans,  and 
other  students)  and  the  two  assistant  priests, 
Fathers  Irwin  and  O'Brien,  community  life 
of  the  Apostolate  began.  There  was  an  im- 
mense deal  of  fervor  about  the  place,  and  a 
strict  monastic  rule  was  observed  for  several 
years,  everything  being  done  on  the  stroke 
of  the  bell  from  five  to  nine,  and  no  idle 
bread  being  eaten. 

In  those  crowded  years  numbers  of  mis- 
sions were  given  to  the  country  people,  fre- 
quently for  two  weeks  at  a  time,  and  the 
chapels  were  well-crowded  by  the  non- 
Catholics.  No  work  was  ever  more  apos- 
tolic! Of  the  twenty-five  or  thirty  young 
disciples  at  Nazareth  many  have  become 
holy  and  fervent  priests  in  other  parts  of  the 
United  States.  They  were  confirmed  in 
their  apostolic  zeal  at  Nazareth. 

Seminarians  would  come  down  in  the  sum- 
mer from  Baltimore  and  Dunwoodie  and  do 
valiant  work  around  the  country.  The 
chapels  would  be  veritable  spiritual  camps, 

33 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MARY  KNOLL 

with  pots,  pans  and  cooking  paraphernalia, 
bread  and  raw  food  to  be  cooked,  a  priest 
and  several  seminarians  in  attendance,  and 
wagon  and  mules,  blankets  and  mattresses. 
The  seminarians  would  spread  their  mat- 
tresses at  night  on  the  floor,  and  cover  their 
tired  bodies  with  the  blankets.  Rising  at  a 
fixed  hour,  after  the  direction  of  their  minds 
to  God,  they  would  shake  out  of  doors  their 
blankets  and  bedding,  fold  them,  sweep  up 
every  particle  of  dust,  wash  and  attire  them- 
selves, have  regular  meditation  and  morning 
prayer,  sing  High  Mass  at  8  o'clock,  hear  a 
sermon,  breakfast  under  the  trees  at  9:30, 
go  out  among  the  country  people,  and  re- 
turn at  3:00,  when  dinner  would  be  served. 
Services  and  a  sermon  to  the  people  at  3 145 ; 
recreation  from  5  to  6;  a  little  spiritual 
reading;  supper  about  6:30  under  the  trees j 
big  service  of  prayer,  hymns,  and  sermons  at 
8:15;  after  services,  talks  with  the  people; 
night  prayers  about  9:30;  then  silence  and 
bed.  All  this  for  two  weeks  at  a  time,  with 
coarse  but  abundant  food.     The  seminarians 

34 


NORTH   CAROLINA   MISSION 


from  the  regular  seminaries,  as  a  rule, 
highly  edified  the  people  by  their  devout  cat- 
echetical instructions. 

To  the  pen  of  Reverend  William  B.  Han- 
non  of  Asheville,  North  Carolina,  we  are 
indebted  for  the  following  vivid  impressions 
of  a  visit  to  Nazareth: 

I  always  found  a  charm  in  visiting  Father  Price 
at  Nazareth.  The  place,  built  on  an  eminence, 
gave  one  a  sense  of  expanse  on  coming  out  of  the 
fenland  of  most  parts  of  eastern  North  Carolina. 
One  could  see  quite  a  distance  and  behold  the  sky 
and  clouds  from  horizon  to  horizon.  There  was 
something  reposeful  about  the  whole  establish- 
ment. 

It  was  a  bright  day  in  late  spring  when  I  ac- 
companied Father  Price  and  two  of  his  students 
to  open  a  week's  mission  to  non-Catholics,  at  a 
little  mission  church  in  Wake  County.  Large 
fleecy  clouds  floated  in  a  blue  sky,  but  the  sun 
was  warm.  I  had  been  spending  a  few  days  at 
Nazareth,  and  gladly  consented  to  join  in  the 
good  work.  Some  beds  and  household  effects  were 
placed  in  a  farm  w^agon,  and  the  two  priests  and 

35 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

two  students  took  their  seats  and  set  out  for  the 
place  of  rendezvous. 

The  road  was  full  of  ruts,  and  the  passengers 
received  many  a  jolt  on  the  way.  We  passed 
colored  settlements,  then  quite  new  and  curious  in 
my  eyes.  The  large  farm  horse  went  by  fits  and 
starts,  creeping  along  at  times  at  a  snaiFs  pace, 
and  then  galloping  as  fast  as  his  cumbersome  load 
would  allow.  It  was  a  fairly  picturesque  route, 
past  pine  woods,  where  doves  cooed  lazily  among 
the  trees,  and  many  plantations  of  white  folks, 
who  placidly  gazed  at  "  Priest  Price "  and  his 
luggage  and  companions,  or  looked  with  wonder 
and  suspicion  on  the  advent  of  the  Catholic  folk 
of  Nazareth,  invading  the  undisturbed  territory 
of  their  Protestant  creed,  whose  conflicting  and 
unsightly  churches  were  seen  in  all  directions.  I 
do  not  know  where  such  ugly  churches  are  to  be 
found  as  in  the  solid  Protestant  South,  except  in 
Wales. 

We  saluted  the  people  as  we  passed,  and  some 
jerked  back  a  nod  of  recognition  over  their 
shoulders,  as  if  making  an  effort  to  return  the 
salutation.  The  people  are  well  schooled  against 
Catholicism  by  their  spiritual  teachers,  who  revel 
in  all  the  old  exploded  scandals  and  lies  concerning 

36 


NORTH   CAROLINA  MISSION 


the  Church.  It  is  easy  to  see  the  glint  of  dislike 
on  their  faces  when  they  know  that  one  is  a  Cath- 
olic or  a  priest.  The  Southern  States  are  still  the 
happy  hunting  grounds  of  illiteracy  and  preju- 
dice. 

I  was  rather  disappointed  on  seeing  the  mis- 
sion chapel  or  shack,  called  very  appropriately 
after  St.  Teresa,  who  had  to  put  up  with  such 
crude  structures  in  her  new  reform  establishments. 
It  presented  an  interior  of  confusion,  not  having 
been  used  for  months,  but  it  soon  changed  its 
appearance.  The  mattresses  were  duly  laid  on 
the  sacristy  floor,  where  we  were  to  sleep,  and  the 
novelty  was  pleasing  to  us.  As  for  Father  Price, 
he  was  unconscious  of  any  difference,  and  was 
quite  as  at  home  in  the  poorest  hut  in  the  back- 
woods as  in  the  most  agreeable  city  home.  One 
of  the  students,  now  a  Superior  in  a  religious 
order,  went  out  to  the  natives,  who  were  viewing 
from  afar  the  invasion,  and  bargained  with  them 
for  milk  and  other  sundries,  and  so  broke  the  ice. 

Father  Price,  with  his  truly  devotional  spirit, 
was  full  of  the  fire  of  prayer  and  zeal,  but  it  was 
a  barren  soil  for  converts.  However,  its  spiritual 
distress  was  an  appealing  plea  to  his  apostolic  heart. 
I  noticed  during  my  sermon  that  men  and  women 

37 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

were  continually  spitting,  and  felt  hurt  at  the 
profanity  in  a  Catholic  church,  even  in  this  poor 
shack. 

My  memories  of  that  mission  are  half  pleasant, 
half  pathetic.  That  the  large  attendance  was 
untouched,  like  many  millions  in  the  Sunny  South, 
was  the  sad  feature  of  Catholic  failure  to  reach 
these  people.  They  go  through  life  in  the  old 
circumscribed  familiar  ways,  knowing  little  of 
the  Church  of  God,  and,  in  fact,  ignorant  of  the 
fundamental  truths  of  Christianity;  passing  from 
youth  to  old  age,  and  from  the  death-bed  to  the 
graveyard,  missing  so  much  certain  hope  that  the 
Church  gives  the  peasantry  elsewhere.  Such  has 
been  Catholic  endeavor  for  generations.  Even 
the  great  heart  of  Bishop  England  had  to  feel 
the  same  trial  after  all  the  torrents  of  his  fervid 
eloquence,  his  poverty,  his  self-sacrifice,  and  the 
clouds  of  suspicion  in  which  his  open,  generous 
nature  had  to  be  enveloped.  It  is  recorded  that 
this  holy  and  gifted  man  made  few  converts  in 
his  day. 

The  following  incident  shows  another 
phase  of  Father  Price's  work. 

38 


NORTH  CAROLINA  MISSION 

A  negro,  Henry  Spivy,  was  tried  and  con- 
victed at  Elizabethtown,  Bladen  County, 
on  the  charge  of  arson  and  murder.  He 
was  carried  to  the  State  prison  of  Raleigh 
for  safe  keeping  pending  his  appeal  to  the 
Supreme  Court.  Visiting  the  prison,  as  was 
Father  Price's  custom,  he  met  the  condemned 
man.  The  higher  court  refused  a  new  trial, 
and  Spivy  was  carried  back  to  his  home 
county,  accompanied  by  Father  Price,  who 
stopped  at  Lumberton  to  interview  the  con- 
demned man's  lawyers  in  the  hope  of  secur- 
ing a  short  postponement  of  the  hanging  in 
order  that  he  might  give  further  religious 
instructions  to  the  negro. 

Father  Price  hired  a  horse  and  buggy  and 
drove  thirty  miles  to  Elizabethtown  in  order 
to  be  with  Spivy  on  the  day  appointed  for  the 
hanging.  On  the  day  originally  appointed 
for  the  execution,  thousands  of  people  had 
assembled  to  witness  this,  the  last  public 
hanging  in  North  Carolina.  When  the  an- 
nouncement was  made  of  the  postponement 
the  people  were  in  an  ugly  mood.     Blame 

39 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

was  charged  to  the  Catholic  priest  present. 
Father  Price  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the 
disappointed  assemblage,  confirmed  the 
rumor  that  the  hanging  had  been  put  off,  and 
invited  all  to  go  with  him  to  the  Court 
House  to  hear  a  talk  given  by  a  Catholic 
priest.  People  packed  the  court-room,  and 
his  hearers  expressed  their  admiration  for 
the  missioner  and  the  impression  made  on 
them  by  his  talk.  After  the  labors  of  the 
day  Father  Price  drove  back  the  thirty 
miles  to  Lumberton. 

A  week  later  Father  Price  again  made  the 
difficult  trip.  On  the  night  before  the  execu- 
tion he  requested  that  he  be  locked  in 
.the  cell  with  the  prisoner.  This  was  done. 
It  was  noted  by  the  jailers  that  while  the 
negro  spent  his  last  night  on  earth  in  sound 
sleep,  the  other  occupant  of  the  cell  passed 
the  long  hours  in  prayer.  The  next  morning 
Father  Price  used  a  box  as  an  altar,  celebrated 
Mass,  and  gave  Spivy  Holy  Communion. 
Spivy's  was  the  last  public  legal  hanging  in 
North  Carolina. 

40 


FATHER  PRICE  IN  HIS  NORTH 
CAROLINA   DAYS 


NORTH   CAROLINA  MISSION 


It  is  no  matter  for  wonder  that  all  who 
were  associated  with  Father  Price,  this  truly- 
apostolic  and  saintly  man,  loved  him,  and 
with  his  ardent  zeal  stirring  their  hearts 
strove  hard  for  their  own  spiritual  develop- 
ment and  the  glory  of  God. 

As  time  went  on,  however,  it  became  grad- 
ually evident  that,  despite  all  the  means, 
natural  and  supernatural,  taken  to  assure  its 
success,  the  Apostolate  was  not  destined  to 
be  permanent.  Bitter  as  this  realization  must 
have  been  to  the  zealous  apostle,  meaning, 
as  it  then  seemed,  the  ruin  of  his  projected 
life-work,  the  blow  was  nevertheless  ac- 
cepted with  the  most  perfect  resignation,  and 
Father  Price's  natural  sweetness  of  temper 
and  his  infectious  cheerfulness  seemed  in  no 
degree  affected.  He  had  begun  the  work 
thinking  it  to  be  God's  will.  He  regarded 
its  apparent  failure,  despite  his  best  efforts 
and  prayers,  as  a  manifestation  of  God's 
will^  and,  while  his  apostolic  heart  bled  for 
the  countless  souls  that  he  had  hoped  to 
reach     through     the     Apostolate,     he    was 

41 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

wholly  resigned  to  the  inscrutable  designs  of 
Providence. 

Several  reasons  conspired  to  defeat  Father 
Price's  plan  of  a  religious  order  for  the 
South,  but  we  may  say,  in  a  word,  that  he 
was  so  overwhelmed  with  the  labor  of  build- 
ing and  money-getting  that  he  could  not  give 
to  the  rising  Society  the  minute  attention  it 
demanded.  His  labors  were  gigantic,  since 
he  had  to  be  superior,  builder,  money-getter, 
editor,  and  missioner,  all  in  one.  Then, 
too,  in  his  ardent  zeal  he  wanted  big  results 
quickly.  Had  he  gone  more  slowly  and 
deliberately,  and  been  satisfied  with  less  prog- 
ress at  first,  his  success  might  have  been 
greater.  These,  however,  are  merely  natu- 
ral reasons  for  what  then  appeared  the 
failure  of  one  of  Father  Price's  projects. 
None  of  his  works  should  be  judged  according 
to  human  standards,  but  by  divine.  Regarded 
thus,  they  were  not  failures,  but  only  the 
means  whereby  the  soul  of  our  apostle  was 
being  prepared  and  strengthened,  by  experi- 
ence and  grace,  for  still  greater  things. 

42 


Ill 

MARYKNOLL    APOSTOLATE 


Ill 

MART  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 

iw^HILE  at  the  Eucharistic  Congress 
vL/  in  Montreal,  in  September,  1910, 
Father  Price  met  his  future  associate, 
Father  Walsh,  then  Archdiocesan  Director, 
in  Boston,  of  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Faith.  Each  was  deeply 
interested  in  apostolic  work,  each  had  heard 
of  and  was  eager  to  meet  the  other.  It 
was  the  special  grace  of  God  that  brought  both 
together  at  the  Eucharistic  Congress. 

When  two  souls  animated  by  the  same  spirit 
and  purpose  come  together,  it  is  to  be  ex- 
pected that  they  should  desire  and  plan  to 
join  forces.  Such  was  the  decision  of  these 
two  apostolic  workers,  and  then  and  there 
was  conceived  the  idea  of  supplying  what 
they  considered  America's  greatest  spiritual 
need,  a  national  foreign  mission  seminary, 
which  would  not  only  take  away  our  reproach 

45 


FATHER   PRICE   OF  MART  KNOLL 

among  the  nations  —  that  we  were  a  people 
ignoring  apostolic  obligation  —  but  would 
also,  as  in  the  case  of  Holland,  react  spirit- 
ually in  stimulating  needed  vocations  for 
religious  work  at  home. 

The  following  May,  encouraged  and  au- 
thorized by  the  unanimous  approbation  of  the 
American  hierarchy  in  response  to  a  letter 
sent  out  by  Cardinal  Gibbons,  of  Baltimore, 
Father  Price  went  with  Father  Walsh  to 
Rome,  to  secure  approval  for  the  new  work. 

This  approval  was  granted  on  June  29,  the 
Feast  of  Saints  Peter  and  Paul  j  and  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  Holy  Father,  Pius  X,  received 
Father  Price  and  Father  Walsh  in  private 
audience,  at  the  close  of  which  His  Holiness 
blessed  the  work  and  its  organizers. 

A  few  days  later  Father  Price  left  Rome 
for  Lourdes,  the  spot  on  earth  that  he  desired 
most  to  visit,  because  of  his  intense  love  for 
the  Immaculate  Conception  and  for  her  little 
protegee,  Bernadette  Soubirous.  He  stayed 
with  the  brother  of  Bernadette,  visited  the 
convent  where  she  had  lived  and  died,  was 

46 


MARTKNOLL  APOSTOLATE 

favored  with  the  gift  of  some  treasured  sou- 
venirs, and  established  a  warm  friendship 
with  her  relatives  that  endured  until  death. 

Up  to  this  time  Father  Price  had  continued 
as  owner  and  editor  of  Truth.  Father  Walsh 
had  also  been  publishing  The  Field  Afar,  2l 
bi-monthly  magazine  devoted  to  apostolic 
work  in  pagan  lands.  As  the  purpose  of  the 
new  national  Seminary  was  exclusively  for- 
eign mission,  it  was  now  considered  unfeasible 
either  to  continue  each  separately,  or  to  merge 
the  two  magazines,  and  Father  Price  accord- 
ingly severed  his  connection  with  Truth,  put- 
ting it  into  the  hands  of  persons  who,  he 
judged,  would  carry  it  on  in  accord  with  his 
ideals. 

In  December,  1 9 1 1 ,  Father  Price  went  with 
Father  Walsh  to  the  home  of  the  Domin- 
ican Fathers  at  Hawthorne,  New  York,  and, 
making  this  his  headquarters,  entered  ener- 
getically upon  the  second  and  more  immediate 
step  in  founding  the  foreign  mission  seminary 
—  the  launching  of  a  campaign  of  propaganda 
to  arouse  vocations  and  to  secure  financial  sup- 

47 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

port  for  the  training  and  maintenance  of  mis- 
sioners.  While  Father  Walsh,  chosen  Supe- 
rior of  the  Seminary,  remained  in  Hawthorne, 
and  later  in  Ossining,  New  York,  to  direct 
the  correspondence  and  to  supervise  the 
rapidly  growing  institution.  Father  Price  cov- 
ered practically  every  diocese  in  the  East, 
speaking  in  churches,  convents,  seminaries, 
colleges,  schools,  hospitals,  wherever  he  could 
find  the  opportunity,  to  picture  the  appalling 
conditions  in  pagan  lands,  to  request  prayers, 
to  encourage  vocations,  to  find  friends  for  the 
new  work. 

His  wide  acquaintance,  developed  on  prop- 
aganda for  the  North  Carolina  mission,  and 
the  high  regard  in  which  he  was  held  by  his 
many  friends  among  the  clergy  and  laity  of 
the  country,  were  invaluable  to  the  new  work 
in  winning  friends  and  help  in  its  early  and 
critical  stage.  May  we  not  ascribe  to  the  labors 
and  zeal  of  Father  Price  no  inconsiderable 
share  in  the  rapid  growth  of  MaryknoU  —  a 
development  all  the  more  remarkable  by 
reason  of  its  occurring  at  a  time  when  the 

48 


MART  KNOLL   APOSTOLATE 


Great   War   dealt   severely   with   unrelated 
projects?* 

As  the  intervals  between  propaganda  trips 
became  longer,  Father  Price  was  more  con- 
stantly associated  with  the  Seminary  work  as 
Spiritual  Director  of  the  students.  Here  his 
influence  was  particularly  happy.  The  stu- 
dents, realizing  his  ardent  though  unpreten- 
tious sanctity,  could  not  but  admire  and  aspire 
to  such  zeal  as  had  kept  aflame  his  mis- 
sion enthusiasm  during  his  long  and  trying 
career  in  the  South  and  that  now  prompted 
him  to  go  to  pagan  lands  to  spend  and  be 
spent  for  Christ.  His  unfailing  good  humor 
communicated  itself  to  all  hearts,  making 
light  the  unmistakable  hardships  of  Mary- 
knolPs  early  days.  His  influence  helped  to 
crystallize  one  of  the  most  impressive  and 

*  when  Father  Price  left  for  China,  in  September, 
1 91 8,  the  Maryknoll  institution  counted  seventeen  or- 
dained priests,  seventy-five  students  for  the  priesthood, 
ten  auxiliary  brothers  and  thirty  sisters,  while  substantial 
accommodation  for  all  had  been  provided  at  the  Mary- 
knoll center  in  Ossining,  New  York,  and  at  the  Prepara- 
tory College  in  Clarks  Summit,  a  suburb  of  Scranton, 
Pennsylvania. 

49 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

precious  traits  of  the  "  Maryknoll  spirit,"  a 
heaven-sent  cheerfulness  that  makes  every 
yoke  sweet  and  every  burden  light  when  borne 
for  the  love  of  God  and  man. 

Being  thus  an  edification  to  all,  particularly 
to  his  penitents,  whom  he  directed  with  an 
eye  ever  keen  to  perceive  and  follow  God's 
designs  —  as  they  now  so  gratefully  testify 
—  Father  Price  might  have  been  considered 
settled  in  the  final  work  of  a  busy  life.  But 
God  seemed  to  have  further  plans  for  an  in- 
strument so  useful,  for  he  was  destined  to 
become  a  vital  factor  in  giving  to  the  actual 
workers  in  the  mission  field  the  direction,  the 
spirit,  and  the  tradition  that  have  already 
reaped  a  glorious  spiritual  harvest  and  won 
encomiums  of  praise  from  other  and  more 
seasoned  missioners. 

In  191 8  when  the  Maryknoll  Seminary 
Council  decided  to  send  four  priests  to  the 
mission.  Father  Price  manifested  his  desire 
to  go,  in  spite  of  the  anticipated  difficulties  of 
climate  and  language,  difficulties  that  were 
serious  for  one  of  his  age. 

50 


MART  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 

The  desire  and  the  zeal  to  do  missionary 
work  in  the  field  afar,  to  suffer  its  privations 
and  to  bear  in  patience  the  rigors  and  hard- 
ships that  fall  to  the  lot  of  every  missionary 
priest  and  nun,  is  a  thing  to  be  admired  in 
young  men  and  women ;  but  when  a  man  who 
is  fast  approaching  three-score  starts  on  a 
missionary  career  to  a  distant  country  to  labor 
for  the  salvation  of  souls  and  the  alleviation 
of  the  sufferings  of  a  people  whose  customs, 
manners,  and  habits  are  strange  to  him,  and 
whose  climate  promises  keenest  physical  suf- 
fering, then  we  can  truly  say  that  such  a 
man  is  filled  with  an  apostolic  zeal  that  is 
almost  divine. 

On  the  eighth  of  September,  191 8,  Feast 
of  the  Nativity  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary, 
Father  Price,  in  company  with  three  Mary- 
knoll  priests.  Fathers  James  E.  Walsh,  Fran- 
cis X.  Ford,  and  Bernard  F.  Meyer,  left 
MaryknoU  for  China.  Then  began  the  third 
period  of  Father  Price's  missionary  activity. 
He  was  spared  to  the  missioners,  his  com- 
panions, but  a  little  over  a  year,  yet  even  in 

51 


FATHER   PRICE   OF  MART  KNOLL 

that  short  time  his  presence  proved  an  inval- 
uable aid  to  those  pioneers.  The  Bishop  of 
Canton  and  his  priests  at  first  felt  that  a  mis- 
take had  been  been  made  in  sending  a  priest 
of  Father  Price's  age,  but  when  they  knew 
him  better  they  wrote :  "  His  coming  was  an 
inspiration." 

For  the  last  chapter  in  the  life  of  this 
saintly  and  heroic  priest,  we  have  the  official 
report  made  after  his  death  by  Father  James 
E.  Walsh,  his  successor  as  Superior  of  the 
Maryknoll  Mission  in  China.  Father 
Walsh's  statement  runs  as  follows: 

Having  decided  to  throw  himself  personally 
into  actual  missionary  work,  Father  Price  deter- 
mined to  leave  no  stone  unturned  that  could  aid 
him  in  becoming  a  successful  missioner  and  above 
all  in  guiding  the  destinies  of  the  newly  launched 
mission.  It  was  with  this  motive  that  he  included 
in  his  itinerary  a  trip  through  some  of  the  mis- 
sions of  Japan,  Korea  and  Northern  China,  where 
he  talked  with  the  bishops  and  missioners,  noted 
methods,  and  picked  up  ideas  in  regard  to  the 
work. 

52 


ST.    THOMAS'    CHURCH.    WILMINGTON, 
NORTH    CAROLINA 

Here  Father  Price  icas  baptized,  served  as  an  altar-hoy,  and  was 

ordained. 


MARTKNOLL  JPOSTOLATE 


Arriving  at  Canton  in  November,  after  a  short 
stay  at  the  Cathedral  to  get  the  instructions  of 
Bishop  de  Guebriant,  under  whom  we  were  to 
work,  Father  Price  with  Father  Gauthier  and  his 
three  confreres  went  directly  to  Yeungkong,  the 
tentative  center  of  the  new  American  Mission, 
where  all  settled  down  to  the  humdrum  of  learn- 
ing the  Chinese  language  and  picking  up  notions 
about  the  practical  prosecution  of  mission  work. 

Yeungkong  was  leather  Price's  first  and  only 
mission  in  China.  During  the  year  that  God  gave 
him  to  spend  here,  he  made  several  trips  to  Canton 
and  Honekono:  on  business  connected  with  the 
mission,  but  those  trips  were  only  a  matter  of  a 
few  weeks,  and  all  the  rest  of  his  time  was  passed 
at  Yeungkong. 

Father  Price  was  fifty-eight  years  old  when  he 
came  to  China.  He  was  evidently  beyond  the 
age  when  a  man  can  accustom  himself  to  a  new 
and  deleterious  climate,  and  the  change  was  for 
him  particularly  severe  for,  being  a  sufferer  from 
rheumatism,  he  found  that  ailment  acutely  in- 
tensified by  the  extreme  humidity  of  Southern 
China.  In  addition,  there  is  something  about  the 
life  and  climate  of  this  country  that  is  very  wear- 
ing  on    the    nerves,    and    Father    Price's    nervous 

53 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

condition  during  this  time  was  a  matter  of  alarm 
to  both  himself  and  his  confreres.  Perhaps  it 
was  accentuated  by  his  dogged  perseverance 
in  studying  the  Chinese  language,  a  nerve-racking 
performance  at  best,  and  a  task  that  becomes 
almost  superhuman  for  a  man  of  his  age.  Noth- 
ing could  prevail  upon  him  to  give  it  up,  nor  even 
to  let  up  on  the  severe  course  he  had  mapped  out 
for  himself. 

During  his  short  career  he  had  little  chance  to 
do  any  actual  mission  work,  as  he  was  never  able 
to  make  himself  understood  in  Chinese,  that  be- 
ing impossible  for  any  one  in  so  short  a  time. 
Yet  he  went  through  the  regular  initiation  of  the 
young  novice,  going  out  on  the  mission  trips  to 
points  around  Yeungkong,  often  traveling  in  the 
most  primitive  conditions,  and  putting  up  with 
all  sorts  of  hardships  with  as  little  concern  as  the 
youngest  and  strongest  of  us.  Added  to  that, 
even  the  daily  life  at  Yeungkong  was  not  so  pleas- 
ant, for  everything  was  rough  and  cave-man 
fashion,  and  many  things  that  Americans  learn  to 
look  upon  as  necessaries  of  life  were  simply  not 
to  be  had.  Through  it  all  Father  Price  was  his 
sereney  gentle  self y  never  comflainingy  never  out 
of  fatiencey  even  at  times  when  the  others  tuere 

54 


MART  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 

frankly  dissatisfied.  He  gave  an  example  that 
will  long  be  remembered  by  those  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  be  associated  with  him  at  this  time. 

As  to  Father  Price's  private  spiritual  life,  it 
was  what  everyone  who  ever  knew  him  anywhere 
has  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  —  one  of  great 
recollection  and  union  with  God  in  prayer,  and  it 
was  perhaps  intensified  by  his  stay  in  China.  He 
saw  many  things  that  cried  out  to  his  'z.ealy  and 
being  without  the  means  of  doing  any  fersonal 
ivork,  or  eveny  in  so  short  a  timey  of  making  any 
flans  for  the  extension  of  the  mission^ s  activity y  he 
always  turned  to  his  rosary y  where  he  would  ask 
God  for  the  results  he  so  ardently  desired.  To 
the  young  priests  who  were  with  him,  his  spirit 
of  prayer,  his  gentleness,  and  his  zeal  were  a  con- 
stant revelation.  They  seemed  to  see  some  new 
evidence  of  these  qualities  every  day,  so  as  to 
make  them  feel  that  they  had  not  rightly  known 
the  man  before. 

It  was  a  curious  thing  that  Father  Price  was 
able  to  make  the  impression  that  he  did  on  the 
Chinese.  Certainly  he  was  never  able  to  manage 
the  simplest  conversation  in  Chinese;  the  most 
we  ever  heard  him  say  were  the  two  sentences, 
"  How  are  you?  "  and  "  God  bless  you!  "      But 

55 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

the  Chinese  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  were 
attracted  to  Father  Price.  They  liked  him,  and 
they  said  so;  it  was  a  known  fact  at  the  mission 
that  Father  Price  was  extremely  popular  with 
them.  It  is  worth  mentioning,  also,  that  the 
Chinese  commonly  rej erred  to  him  as  "  the  holy 
friest.^'  There  was  a  something  about  him  that  it 
did  not  need  language  to  convey,  and  these  simple 
people  felt  it. 

Father  Price  had  little  time  or  opportunity  to 
become  well  acquainted  with  our  French  confreres, 
but  the  impression  he  made  upon  them  was  always 
good.  He  did  not  have  sufficient  command  of 
French  to  permit  a  real  exchange  of  ideas,  but 
they  got  enough  from  him  to  realize  the  char- 
acter of  the  man,  and  all  of  them  who  met  him 
expressed  their  conviction  that  Father  Price  was 
a  beautiful  character  and  a  man  of  sanctity  far  out 
of  the  ordinary.  Even  the  lay  people  he  met  here 
appreciated  him.  One  Protestant  doctor,  on  be- 
ing asked  to  remember  Father  Price  in  his  prayers, 
said,  "  No  use  —  he  was  a  saint." 

Father  Price  died  at  St.  Paul's  Hospital,  Hong- 
kong, where  he  had  gone  from  Yeungkong  to  be 
operated  on  for  appendicitis.  The  operation  was 
a   clean-cut   one,   but  he   did   not   have   sufficient 

S6 


MART  KNOLL   JPOSTOLATE 


vitality  to  react.  He  died  September  12,  19 19, 
on  the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Name  of  Mary.  He 
was  buried  on  the  following  morning  at  Happy 
Valley  Cemetery  in  Hongkong.  The  grave  was 
blessed  by  Bishop  Pozzoni,  and  many  priests  and 
religious  were  in  attendance,  among  them  Fathers 
Gauthier  and  Deswazieres,  who  represented  the 
mission  of  Canton. 

No  Maryknoller  was  at  the  bedside  of 
Father  Price  when  he  died,  and  none  was 
present  at  the  obsequies.  It  could  not  bej 
yet  God  provided  a  substitute  in  the  person 
of  a  devoted  friend  of  Maryknoll,  Father 
Jean  Tour  of  the  Paris  Seminary,  who  wrote 
these  details  of  the  last  hours: 

MaryknoU-in-China  was  already  founded  on 
the  virtues,  the  apostolic  zeal,  and  the  strenuous 
labors  of  the  first  missioners  you  sent  out  here  one 
year  ago.  This  is,  I  think,  your  anniversary  day, 
a  good  and  very  good  day,  indeed,  the  Feast  of 
the  Most  Holy  Name  of  Mary.  To-day,  at  pre- 
cisely 10:10  A.M.,  your  young  Mission  has  re- 
ceived its  second  consecration  and  a  lasting  bless- 
ing, by  the  happy  and  holy  death  of  the  venerable 

57 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

and  saintly  Father  Price.  What  we  feared  yes- 
terday is  now  a  sad  reality. 

The  good  Father  did  not  feel  well  yesterday. 
He  passed  a  good  night,  but  at  three  this  morning 
awoke  feeling  unwell  again.  At  seven  he  asked 
for  the  Last  Rites.  He  told  me  there  was  no 
hurry,  that  he  could  wait  for  me,  but  he  insisted 
upon  receiving  Holy  Viaticum,  Extreme  Unction, 
and  the  Plenary  Indulgence. 

Father  Lemaire,  a  missioner  of  Canton,  who 
is  a  convalescent  there,  yielded  to  his  wish,  and 
all  the  Rites  were  received  in  the  most  edifying 
manner. 

When  I  arrived  at  nine,  good  Father  Price  gave 
me  a  sweet  smile  and  a  hearty  handshake.  He 
spoke  very  low,  but  quite  intelligibly.  I  helped 
him  the  best  way  I  could  during  the  hour.  His 
hands  and  forehead  were  cold.  Had  it  not  been 
for  that,  we  should  have  felt  no  anxiety  for  the 
day.  He  was  very  quiet  and  even  somewhat  hope- 
ful. Still,  there  was  no  doubt  but  that  he  was 
sinking.  I  spoke  to  him  of  all  things  dear  to 
him:  of  Jesus,  Mary,  Joseph,  of  Our  Lady  of 
Lourdes,  of  Bernadette,  and  he  was  smiling  and 
giving  assent  all  the  while.  Then,  of  Father 
Walsh,    and    of    all    the    beloved    Mary kn oilers, 

58 


MARY  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 


Maryknoll  proper,  Scranton,  San  Francisco, 
Yeungkong:.  At  each  name  he  lifted  his  head 
heavenward  and  prayed  according  to  the  thoughts 
and  intentions  I  suggested. 

At  about  nine-thirty,  I  understood  that  he  was 
sinking  more  speedily.  "  Dear  Father  Price,  you 
will  kindly  bless  your  friend,  Father  Tour,  and, 
in  his  person,  dear  Father  Walsh  and  all  beloved 
Maryknollers  of  Maryknoll,  Scranton,  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  Yeungkong,  won't  you?  " 

"  Most  willingly  and  from  the  depth  of  my 
heart,"  he  replied. 

"  You  offer  now  your  sufferings,  and  even  your 
life,  for  the  prosperity  of  your  beloved  Society,  and 
you  pray  and  will  ever  pray  that  they  all  may  do 
the  work  of  God  in  a  truly  apostolic  spirit,  don't 

you?  " 

"  Most  certainly." 

And  as  I  bowed  before  him  by  the  side  of  his 
bed,  he  placed  his  weak  hand  on  my  head  and 
blessed  me,  making  the  Sign  of  the  Cross  on  me  and 
praying  at  the  same  time,  as  I  guessed,  the  bless- 
ing formula. 

Up  to  nine-forty-five  he  repeated  all  the  ejacula- 
tions after  me,  but  his  tongue  was  no  more  free. 
Until  then  he  always  gently  smiled  at  the  Holy 

59 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

Names  and  the  names  of  Maryknoll.  I  started  the 
prayers  for  the  Commendation  of  the  Soul,  in 
English,  which  he  seemed  to  follow  throughout. 
When  these  prayers  were  over,  he  could  see  no 
more.  Then  he  felt  very  distressing  pain  in  his 
wound  and  moved  pitifully  to  the  right  and  to  the 
left  a  dozen  times,  while  his  breath  was  more  and 
more  hard  and  scarce.  At  ten,  he  opened  wide  and 
wild  eyes  and  was  shaken  most  painfully.  The 
good  Sister  on  one  side  and  I  on  the  other  helped 
him  the  best  we  could,  holding  his  hand  until  he 
breathed  his  last  quite  peacefully,  after  some  five 
minutes'  rest. 

I  had  the  sad  privilege  of  closing  the  eyes  of 
your  venerable  friend  and  devoted  co-operator  in 
the  great  work  of  Maryknoll.  I  felt  that  I  was 
representing  you  all,  and  I  could  not  stop  my  tears. 
I  can  assure  you  that  his  death  was  in  the  very 
truth  the  death  of  a  just  man,  and  even  of  a  saint. 
His  last  words  were:  "  Tell  Father  Walsh  my  last 
thoughts  were  for  them  all,  and  that  I  died  in  the 
love  of  Jesus,  Mary,  Joseph,  and  of  Maryknoll." 


More  than  one  has  seen  in  his  death  a  re- 
semblance to  that  of  St.  Francis  Xavier.     In 

60 


MART  KNOLL   APOSTOLATE 

some  ways  it  was  very  dissimilar.  The  Saint 
died  on  the  opposite  shores,  of  Sancian  Island, 
amid  the  most  primitive  surroundings,  while 
Father  Price  died  in  a  modern  hospital,  sur- 
rounded by  several  priests  and  religious. 
But  primitive  or  modern  surroundings  do 
not  make  much  difference  when  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  dying,  and  Father  Price,  like  Saint 
Francis,  died  far  from  his  homeland,  his 
kith  and  kin,  his  friends,  laying  down  his 
life  in  the  strange  country  that  he  had  come 
to  evangelize.  His  memor3/  will  be  held  in 
benediction,  and  his  prayers  from  Heaven 
will  help  to  sustain  the  work  that  he  inaugu- 
rated among  his  brethren  who  sit  in  darkness 
and  the  shadow  of  death. 

What  an  appropriate  and  long  novitiate 
Father  Price  had  in  his  own  homeland  for 
the  Chinese  mission  of  his  last  year  on  earth! 
He  accepted  whatever  God  sent,  and  recog- 
nized that  he  had  to  plough  the  furrows  and 
wait  for  God  to  give  success  or  failure.  He 
never  repined,  but  did  his  utmost  and  was 
cheerful  at  small  results  or  none  at  all. 

61 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

His  life  was  unpretentious  and  far  from 
the  beaten  path,  unheralded  and  unrewarded 
as  far  as  the  world  goes.  He  could  not  have 
begun  work  in  a  more  disappointing  field  of 
the  Church  than  in  North  Carolina^  he 
could  hardly  have  faced  heavier  trials  than 
those  that  awaited  him  in  China  j  but  that  did 
not  cause  him  to  float  feebly  upon  the  Will 
of  God  like  a  branch  that  spins  around  in  a 
whirlpool.  Oftentimes  he  had  abundant 
cause  to  be  weary  and  sad,  but  he  shared 
those  trying  experiences  as  well  as  his  joys 
with  God. 

His  life  as  a  missioner  in  one  of  the  most 
Protestant  states  in  the  Union  had  been  one 
of  innumerable  deeds  of  suffering,  resigna- 
tion, love,  and  humility.  These  grew  in 
number  and  sublimity,  and  the  end  of  his 
life  in  heathen  China,  as  old  age  came  upon 
him,  is  the  striking  evidence  of  how  beloved 
he  was  in  Heaven.  He  could  say  in  China, 
as  in  North  Carolina  if  the  ghostly  visitant 
had  reached  him  there:  "  Bonum  certamen 
certavi,  cur  sum  consummavi,  fidem  servavi." 

62 


MART  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 


When  news  of  Father  Price's  death 
reached  America,  Truth  (the  magazine 
which  he  had  founded  as  the  organ  of  his 
work  in  the  South), wrote  of  him: 

A  eood  man  and  a  brave  man  and  a  rare  man 
left  this  poor  world  when  Father  Price  breathed 
his  last,  like  Francis  Xavier,  in  far-off  China. 
Though  not  possessed  of  great  mental  gifts,  he 
nevertheless  accomplished  a  great  work  through 
sheer  zeal  and  pluck  and  prayer.  His  life  was 
divided  into  two  periods,  spent  at  opposite  sides  of 
the  earth. 

The  first  period  was  taken  up  with  his  priestly 
labors  in  North  Carolina,  and  truly  they  were  the 
labors  of  an  apostle  burning  with  zeal  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls.  When  he  began  them,  some 
forty  years  ago,  the  conditions  were  enough  to  dis- 
courage a  veritable  Paul.  Those  conditions  con- 
sisted of  the  abysmal  ignorance  of,  and  colossal 
antipathy  towards,  Catholicity  on  the  part  of  North 
Carolinians.  The  life  of  a  priest  was  then  and 
there  one  that  called  for  unusual  courage  and 
strength  of  character.  Laborers  in  more  fruitful 
portions  of  the  Lord's  Vineyard  can  hardly  realize 
the   difficulties  of  priests  placed  as  Father   Price 

63 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

was.  He  had,  it  is  true,  a  little  parish,  —  little  in 
numbers,  but  vast  in  extent,  and  it  was  often  his 
lot  to  get  from  town  to  town  or  up  among  the 
mountains  and  into  the  woods  with  a  pack  on  his 
back,  sleeping  sometimes  by  the  wayside  or  in  hay- 
ricks, begging  a  meal  here  and  there  —  sometimes 
the  meal  being  refused.  Yet  the  young  apostle 
stuck  to  his  work,  not  only  manfully,  but  always 
with  even  cheerfulness.  Food,  clothing  and  all 
such  bodily  comforts  simply  meant  nothing  to 
him. 

We  owe  to  his  foresight  the  creation  of  Truth, 
which  now  numbers  among  its  subscribers  over 
120,000,  dwelling  in  every  State  in  the  Union. 
In  a  way  it  did  take  a  sort  of  genius  to  create  all 
this.  Certainly,  it  took  a  rare  man  to  conceive  and 
carry  it  through  to  success.  How  he  did  succeed 
is  a  marvel,  because  he  succeeded  with  nothing. 
Disaster  in  the  form  of  fire  that  destroyed  the  plant 
erected  by  long  and  arduous  toil,  lack  of  funds, 
criticism  —  nothing  daunted  him.  Under  his 
guidance  the  little  magazine  leaped  into  a  charac- 
teristic place  in  religious  journalism  and  has  ever 
been  a  source  of  enlightenment  to  non-Catholics 
and  of  assistance  to  Catholics.  It  was  rare  instinct 
that  made  of  him  a  veritable  pioneer  in  sensing  the 

64 


MART  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 


power  of  the  press  for  defending  the  Church;  all 
the  more  remarkable  when  we  reflect  that  he  had 
no  traditions  in  such  matters  to  guide  him. 

Father  Price's  yearning  for  the  foreign  mis- 
sions was  born  chiefly  from  a  genuine  desire  to 
"go  the  limit"  of  apostolic  self-sacrifice.  Un- 
known but  to  a  few  special  friends,  his  desire  was 
to  actually  lay  down  his  life  for  the  Faith,  so  that 
he  prayed  for  martyrdom.  Had  he  lived  in  the 
early  youth  of  Christianity  he  would  have  become  a 
Sebastian  or  a  Pancratius.  Later  on  he  would  have 
joined  a  Patrick  or  a  Boniface.  As  it  was,  he  im- 
itated a  Francis  Xavier.  His  death  over  there  by 
the  rising  sun  is  a  significant  event,  for  it  is  the 
first  of  any  missioner  sent  there  by  a  distinctly 
American  foreign  missionary  society.  Perhaps  it 
marks,  in  its  humble  way,  the  turn  of  the  world 
on  its  spiritual  axis  —  the  turn  from  West  to  East. 
The  history  of  Christianity  —  in  fact,  of  civiliza- 
tion —  has  been  these  three  or  four  thousand  years 
a  steady  turning  of  East  to  West,  from  the 
Euphrates  through  Athens  to  Rome,  to  Paris,  to 
London,  to  New  York,  to  San  Francisco.  And 
now,  it  perhaps  is  beginning  to  retrace  its  progress, 
by  crossing  the  Pacific  and  touching  to  life  the  dor- 
mant millions  of  China. 

6s 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

It  is  not  a  peevish  pessimism  of  limited  view, 
but  rather  the  big  optimism  of  a  world-wide  vision, 
that  looks  with  hope  to  the  East  as  it  now  contem- 
plates the  spiritual  ruins  of  civilization  in  the  West. 
Our  own  civilization  is  tottering  under  its  burden 
of  materialism.  It  cannot  endure  as  it  is  at  present. 
It  has  the  symptoms  of  the  decay  that  overcame 
Rome  in  the  days  of  Pompey  and  the  early  Caesars. 
Then  the  new  life  blossomed  out  again  amidst  the 
virgin  soil  by  the  Rhine  and  the  Seine  and  the 
Thames.  Centuries  later,  old  Europe  received  a 
new  stimulant  after  Columbus  found  a  yet  fresher 
soil  across  the  Atlantic.  But,  now,  there  is  no 
more  a  new  soil.  Civilization  —  that  is,  spiritual 
civilization  —  must  return  to  the  old  neglected 
fields  that  perhaps  lie  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himala- 
yas or  on  the  banks  of  the  Yangtse,  where  the 
brutality  of  modern  machinery  has  not  yet  clubbed 
the  spirit  of  man  into  servitude.  The  East  calls  the 
missioner  now,  as  the  West  called  him  long  ago. 
But  it  is  ever  the  same  call.  .  .  .  And  so,  perhaps, 
Father  Price's  going  into  the  dawn,  and  his  death 
at  the  shining  portals  of  the  East,  may  after  all 
mark  in  a  humble  way  the  beginning  of  something 
new  and  fresh  in  the  world's  history.  It  may  be 
as  the  gentle  moving  of  the  early  dawn's  air,  ere 

66 


MART  KNOLL  APOSTOLATE 


the  fresher  morning  wind  sings  its  matins  to  the 
rising  sun.  He  is  not  to  be  mourned.  We  can 
well  say  of  him,  as  we  say  of  the  saints,  that  his 
feast-day  is  the  day  of  his  death.  That  day  of  his 
has  about  it  all  the  glory  of  the  morning,  and 
the  promise  of  new  life.  —  Truth, 


67 


IV 
THE   MAN    OF   GOD 


IV 

THE  MAN  OF  GOD 

XN  thinking  of  Father  Price,  one  always 
pictures  him  far  removed  from  the 
noise  and  strife  of  the  crowd.  His  struggles 
were  set  in  quiet  places:  he  sought  his  own 
soul's  sanctification  in  the  prayer  and  dis- 
cipline of  solitude,  and  the  salvation  of 
others  in  the  hills  and  dales  of  his  North 
Carolina  mission  and  later  in  the  remote 
mission-fields  of  China.  Maryknoll,  situ- 
ated as  it  is  on  a  fine  eminence,  looking 
out  upon  the  stately  Hudson,  and  still 
clothed  in  much  of  its  primeval  beauty, 
afforded  him  every  opportunity  for  seclu- 
sion, and  his  was  a  familiar  figure,  clothed  in 
an  ancient  well-patched  cassock,  long  black 
cloak  that  he  had  received  from  the  brother 
of  his  beloved  Bernadette  of  Lourdes,  and 
old  soft  hat,  as,  with  head  and  shoulders 
bowed  and  rosary  in  hand,  he  strode  through 

71 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

the  compound,  clambering  over  stone  walls 
until  he  was  finally  lost  in  the  wooded 
groves.  Thence  he  emerged  hours  later:  and 
the  supreme  joy  on  his  countenance,  and  the 
tell-tale  stains  on  his  cassock,  of  which  he 
was  unconscious,  revealed  the  secret  of  the 
precious  time  spent  on  his  knees  in  heavenly 
communion  with  Jesus  and  Mary,  whose 
knight  he  was. 

Father  Price  was  strongly,  almost  rug- 
gedly, built  and  of  robust  health,  except  for 
severe  attacks  of  rheumatism,  contracted, 
doubtless,  from  exposure  to  all  kinds  of 
weather  and  lack  of  proper  food  while  in  the 
Carolina  mission.  He  was  heard  to  say  that 
he  had  more  than  once  slept  in  open  fields 
or  in  barns,  when  other  shelter  had  been  re- 
fused him  by  the  natives.  In  the  Life  of 
Madame  Rose  Lummisy  herself  an  apostle 
of  the  South,  we  read: 

He  went  from  town  to  town,  preaching  in  the 
market-place  and  being  plied  with  questions,  which 
he  desired,  but  often  with  cabbages  and  worse, 
which  he  did  not  desire,  before  he  won  a  hearing 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


on  the  claims  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Undaunted, 
he  continued  his  way.  He  slept  anywhere  and 
everywhere,  ate  what  he  got,  and  went  about  dis- 
tributing literature  broadcast.  The  seed  fell  here 
and  there ;  his  ambition  for  souls  was  boundless. 

Ordinarily  quick  and  somewhat  nervous  in 
action,  he  was  slow  and  deliberate  in  every- 
thing pertaining  to  serious  problems  and  re- 
ligious matters.  His  kind  blue  eyes  —  often 
lighted  with  a  merry  twinkle,  for  he  had  a 
keen,  delightful  sense  of  humor  —  his  genial 
winning  smile,  and  his  evident  gentleness, 
made  him  so  approachable  that  even  strangers 
speedily  felt  at  ease  with  him.  This  accessi- 
bility was  strengthened  by  his  manner.  No 
matter  how  preoccupied  he  was,  he  would 
drop  everything,  with  no  appearance  of  re- 
luctance, to  hear  whatever  one  had  to  say, 
giving  his  attention  with  such  sympathy  and 
understanding  that  very  often  the  mere  re- 
cital of  a  difficulty  would  seem  to  solve  it. 

Wide  experience,  rare  discernment,  and 
excellent  judgment,  combined  with  natural 
charm,  made  Father  Price  a  welcome  addi- 

73 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

tion  to  any  circle.  His  fund  of  anecdotes, 
both  serious  and  amusing,  seemed  inexhaust- 
ible, and  there  was  hardly  a  topic  that  he 
could  not  illustrate  most  entertainingly  from 
his  own  experience.  Father  Tabb,  the  blind 
poet-priest  of  St.  Charles'  College,  and  Abbe 
Magnien  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  were 
frequently  the  subjects  of  such  stories j  but 
no  tales  were  more  delightful  than  those, 
related  in  his  rich  Southern  drawl,  of  the 
"  po'  whites  "  and  the  negroes  among  whom 
he  had  labored. 

Father  Price  was  universally  beloved.  He 
was  full  of  tenderness  and  loving  kindness 
for  all  the  frail  beings  of  the  world,  and 
even  some  most  rigorous  Protestants  admired 
his  truly  Catholic  charity  and  became  his  sin- 
cere friends.  He  had  sufficient  breadth  of 
mind  to  empty  himself  and  become  all  in  all 
to  the  poor  backward  Southern  white  man, 
and  at  the  same  time  learning  and  manners 
enough  not  to  be  despised  by  the  polished 
Southern  gentlemen.  A  priest  who  worked 
with  him  in  the  South  declares  that  "  the  two 

74 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


classes  are  poles  apart,  and  Father  Price 
could  face  either  pole  perfectly.  He  was 
always  fersona  grata  to  the  Southern  gentry. 
There  was  nothing  crude  about  him,  although 
he  was  perfectly  unconscious  of  the  quality 
of  his  food  and  clothing  and  quite  at  home 
in  the  poorest  and  roughest  surroundings." 
He  was  not  long  engaged  in  the  ministry 
when  his  ability  as  a  missioner  was  recog- 
nized, and  he  was  called  upon  for  difficult 
missions,  until  finally  he  was  allowed  by  the 
bishop  to  devote  himself  to  the  conversion 
of  his  Southern  non-Catholic  countrymen. 
He  quietly  exerted  an  influence  upon  the 
most  illiterate  and  prejudiced:  he  was  verily 
a  good  shepherd  to  the  lost  and  sinful  ones: 
and  he  thought  no  soul  for  whom  Christ 
died  outside  the  range  of  his  pastoral  care. 
He  was  never  so  cramped  and  selfish  as  to 
think  that  his  work  was  within  the  confines 
of  a  particular  territory,  and  that  souls  else- 
where had  no  claim  on  him:  his  zeal  was 
truly  Catholic,  not  parochial.  He  looked  to 
souls,  and,  like  the  celebrated  Father  of  the 

75 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

Church,  reckoned  one  soul  worthy  the  min- 
istry of  a  bishop.  He  would  preach  to  two 
colored  children  as  earnestly  as  if  they  were 
a  whole  congregation:  and  he  counted  it 
nothing  to  go  twenty  miles  across  the  moun- 
tains to  receive  into  the  Church  a  single 
convert. 

Humility,  practiced  in  an  heroic  degree, 
was  an  outstanding  trait  of  Father  Price's 
character.  He  was  forever  preaching  it,  and 
he  lived  according  to  his  precepts.  Con- 
vinced that  it  is  the  very  foundation  of  the 
spiritual  life.  Father  Price  tried  to  impress 
upon  the  students  the  great  principle  that 
without  humility  everything  is  founded  on 
quicksand.  At  every  spiritual  reading  which 
he  conducted  when  at  Maryknoll  he  endeav- 
ored to  inculcate  in  the  students  some  of  his 
own  regard  for  this  virtue.*  He  seldom 
spoke  of  himself,  or  of  his  work  in  North 
Carolina,  beyond  narrating  some  humorous 
incident,  and  he  disliked  very  much  having 

*  In  doing  this,   he  made  constant  use  of  the  Exer- 
cises of  St.   Ignatius,  and  in  particular  of  the  teachings 

76 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


anyone  else  mention  it.  He  absolutely  for- 
bade Father  Walsh  to  put  his  name  in  The 
Field  Afat'y  or  to  make  any  reference  to  him 
—  much  to  the  bewilderment  of  his  many 
friends,  who  would  occasionally  inquire  about 
his  "  disappearance."  He  would  never  con- 
sent to  having  his  picture  taken,  even  in  a 
group,  but  in  spite  of  this  an  occasional 
"  snap  "  was  secured  by  cleverly  aimed  cam- 
eras. (Fortunately,  he  waived  this  ironclad 
rule  before  leaving  for  China,  and  some 
pictures  taken  at  that  time  show  him  in  a  char- 
acteristic mood.)  He  always  tried  to  take  the 
last  place  at  table  and  to  be  the  last  in  leaving 
a  room.  He  took  care  of  his  own  room,  mak- 
ing the  bed  and  sweeping  and  dusting.  He 
was  indifferent  to  his  clothing,  which  was 
frequently   "  hand-me-downs "    from    some 

on  humility  of  the  great  Jesuit.  In  his  younger  days, 
Father  Price  had  desired  to  be  a  Jesuit,  and  for  some 
time  was  faced  with  the  choice  of  missionary  work 
among  the  non-Catholics  of  North  Carolina,  or  of  be- 
coming a  Jesuit  religious.  On  the  advice  of  his  con- 
fessor he  had  definitely  given  up  the  latter  idea,  but  he 
always  had  a  strong  admiration  for  the  famous  Order 
and  the  spiritual  advice  of  its  saintly  founder. 

77 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 


of  his  former  classmates,  and  to  his  food 
with  one  exception:  he  refused  to  eat  apples 
in  any  form.  Why?  Because  they  were  the 
forbidden  fruit  of  Paradise,  and  the  medium 
by  which  sin  was  brought  into  the  world. 

If  Father  Price's  dress  and  oddities  were 
sometimes  amusing,  if  his  constant  preaching 
of  humility  ever  seemed  overdrawn,  we 
must  look  upon  them  as  foils  which  show  in 
greater  luster  the  sterling  spirituality  of  the 
man.  Whether  one  takes  sanctity  as  "  reg- 
ularity, punctuality,  and  exactness,"  or 
whether  it  is  considered  as  "  being  one  with 
God  in  thought,  in  love,  and  in  action," 
Father  Price  was  a  man  of  evident  and  pre- 
eminent  holiness,  a  holiness  attained  by  the 
yielding  of  his  body  to  mortifications  and  his 
soul  to  the  inspirations  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  following  incident  —  and  we  could  give 
many  others  —  is  related  by  a  priest  for 
some  time  associated  with  Father  Price  in 
his  North  Carolina  mission  work: 

He  called  me  once  in  a  hurry  to  hear  his  edifying 
confession,  and  just  as  I  had  given  him  absolution 

78 


ST.    MARY'S    CHURCH,    GOLDSBORO, 
NORTH    CAROLIXA 

The  first  church  built  by  Father  Price. 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


he  was  about  to  put  me  playfully  out  of  the  room 
when  a  sudden  call  came  by  telephone,  and  he  had 
to  rush  to  answer  it.     I  hurriedly  took  in  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  cell-like  room,  and  pulled  the 
blanket  from  the  bed  where  he  slept,  as  it  looked 
devoid  of  a  mattress.     I  then  saw  that  he  slept  on 
the  bars,  which  must  have  pained  his  side  and  ribs. 
He  evidently  recollected  that  he  had  left  me  behind 
in  the  room  and  rushed  impetuously  back.     I  ban- 
teringly  told  him  that  he  should  be  ashamed  to  do 
such  violence  to  his  flesh,  and  he  replied  that  I 
should  not  have  satisfied  my  curiosity  by  uncover- 
ing; the  bed.     He  demanded  silence  on  the  subject, 
which  I  now  break.  I  realized  that  we  have  not 
passed  the  days  of  the  great  saints  even  in  this 
worldly  age,  and  felt  a  hope  for  the  conversion  of 
pitiful  men  when  choice  souls  like  the  poor  mis- 
sioner    of    North    Carolina    prayed    and   suffered 
for   them. 

At  first  Father  Price  was  too  enthusiastic 
in  his  corporal  penances  and  his  health  and 
strength  suffered.  On  the  advice  of  his 
director  he  later  modified  these  austerities  and 
sought  sanctity  in  unswerving  fidelity  to  a 
rule  of  life.     Whether  at  work  or  prayer, 

79 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

Father  Price  showed  the  same  untiring  zeal. 
On  his  propaganda  tours  he  worked  at  top 
speed,  and  in  the  home  nest  at  Maryknoll, 
where  he  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  writing, 
his  concentration  was  admirable. 

From  his  rising  in  the  morning  until  his 
retiring  at  night,  Father  Price's  life  seemed 
to  be  one  of  uninterrupted  union  with  God. 
Even  in  his  busiest  hours  he  lived  in  an  "  at- 
mosphere "  of  heaven,  and  whenever  the 
opportunity  offered  he  would  be  on  his  knees 
before  the  little  shrine  of  Our  Lady  in  his 
room,  or  in  the  chapel  before  the  Blessed 
Sacrament.  In  his  absent-mindedness  he 
forgot  things y  but  never  the  presence  of  God. 
He  always  found  time  for  spiritual  reading 
and  recollection,  and  this  without  neglecting 
the  demands  of  an  intensely  active  aposto- 
late.  In  all  seasons,  the  late  hours  of  the 
night  and  the  early  dawn  found  him 
wrapped  in  prayer.  At  Maryknoll  the  sac- 
ristan often  found  in  the  chapel  the  stump 
of  a  candle  that  had  been  burned  during  the 
night;    yet  at  the  first  sound  of  the  bell 

80 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


Father  Price  would  rise  again  for  morning 
prayer  and  meditation.  Mass  he  said  very 
devoutly,  in  about  thirty-five  minutes.  It 
was  his  custom  to  spend  considerable  time 
in  making  the  Mementos.  After  Mass, 
usually  said  at  the  Blessed  Virgin's  altar,  he 
would  make  his  thanksgiving  at  the  altar  and 
then  follow  it  with  the  Stations  of  the  Cross. 
During  the  day  he  said  the  Little  Office  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  he  strongly  urged  his 
penitents  to  cultivate  the  same  devotion. 
While  he  talked,  or  listened,  or  walked,  or 
rode,  his  rosary  was  present,  twined  about 
his  fingers  during  conversation,  or  slipping 
between  them  as  he  told  the  decades.  A 
man  of  prayer,  he  found  real  companionship 
and  genuine  spiritual  pleasure  in  the  mere 
"  feel  "  of  his  rosary.  He  must  have  said 
it  a  dozen  times  a  day.  If  a  visitor  opened 
the  door  of  his  room  too  quickly  after  the 
cheery,  "  Come  in!  "  he  was  likely  to  sur- 
prise Father  Price  scrambling  from  his  knees 
before  the  little  shrine,  rosary  in  hand,  and 
looking  embarrassed  at  being  "  caught ". 

8i 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

A  priest  in  Jersey  City  recalls  Father 
Price's  visit  to  his  church  one  Sunday  some 
years  ago.  On  that  occasion,  after  hearing 
Father  Price's  mild  appeal  for  Field  Afar 
subscriptions  at  the  first  Mass,  this  priest  be- 
came anxious  and  said  to  him  in  the  sacristy, 
"  Father  Price,  do  you  depend  on  your 
sermon  for  your  propaganda  results?  " 

Father  Price  smiled  and  replied,  "  Why 
do  you  ask?  " 

And  his  friend  answered:  "I  want  to  see 
you  make  good.  But  if  you  don't  put  more 
strength  into  your  appeal  your  visit  here  will 
be  fruitless." 

Father  Price  thanked  his  host,  and  told 
him  that  in  reality  he  depended  especially  on 
prayer.  And  the  priest,  in  telling  of  the  inci- 
dent, added,  "  He  took  away  the  largest 
sum  of  money  ever  gathered  by  any  mis- 
sioner  visiting  our  church." 

Father  Price's  greatest  spiritual  joy  was 
to  honor  Our  Immaculate  Mother,  to  whom 
he  rendered  a  devotion  that  for  its  depth  and 
constancy  was  remarkable  j   and  inseparable 

82 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


from  this  love,  and  born  of  It,  was  his  great 
devotion  to  Bernadette  Soubirous,  his  "  little 
saint  ",  the  "  Lily  of  Mary  ".  On  the  feast 
days  of  either  Our  Blessed  Mother  or  Berna- 
dette, Father  Price  (who  was  especially 
pleased  to  be  called  "  Father  Bernadette  ") 
would  go  off  for  the  day,  making  a  retreat 
to  some  shrine  of  Mary  Immaculate,  where 
he  would  spend  hours  in  uninterrupted 
prayer.  The  first  seeds  of  this  devotion  had 
doubtless  been  planted  by  his  mother,  who 
had  a  great  love  for  The  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion j  and  his  escape  from  drowning,  through 
her  intercession  as  he  believed,  as  well  as  his 
relief  from  deafness  after  a  novena  in  her 
honor,  surely  strengthened  it.  Gratitude 
and  love  prompted  him  to  do  all  in  his  power 
to  honor  Our  Blesed  Lady  and  to  secure  for 
her  greater  reverence  and  affection  in  the 
hearts  of  others.  The  churches  that  he 
erected  in  North  Carolina  were  named  for 
her,  —  the  Church  of  The  Immaculate  Con- 
ceftion  at  Halifax  and  St,  Mary^s  at  Golds- 
boro.     His  priests'  house  was  called  Regina 

83 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MARY  KNOLL 


Afostolorum:  and  had  his  religous  order  for 
the  South  been  successful  it  would  have  been 
dedicated  to  her,  also.  Whenever  the  Ordo 
allowed  a  votive  Mass,  Father  Price  would 
invariably  read  the  Mass  of  The  Immaculate 
Conception  of  December  8j  and  on  those 
occasions  this  man,  who  never  wore  anything 
but  the  poorest  personal  clothing,  would  in- 
sist on  having  the  very  best  vestments  in  the 
Seminary. 

We  are  reminded  here  of  an  incident  that 
occurred  on  the  day  of  Father  Price's  de- 
parture for  China.  It  was  September  8, 
feast  of  Our  Lady's  nativity,  but  most  of 
us  were  more  occupied  with  the  great  event 
that  marked  so  important  a  milestone  in 
Maryknoll's  history  than  with  the  import  of 
the  feast.  Father  Price,  leader  of  the  mis- 
sion band,  did  not  enjoy  being  the  center  of 
attention.  He  slipped  away  and  went  to  the 
kitchen  to  give  a  sister  there  some  final  mes- 
sages in  regard  to  his  Bernadette  literature. 
The  sisters  all  urged  him  to  go  to  the  re- 
fectory, vainly  holding  out  the  prospect  of  a 

84 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


last  opportunity  to  enjoy  Southern  fried 
chicken,  which  had  been  especially  prepared 
for  him.  Happily,  someone  remarked:  "  But 
Father,  how  can  you  treat  Our  Lady  so  on 
her  birthday?  It's  really  her  party,  you 
know!  " 

His  eyes  opened  in  childlike  wonder. 
"  Why,  that's  so !  "  he  exclaimed,  and  dis- 
appeared. And  he  partook  bountifully  of 
the  feast,  and  never  appeared  more  genial 
or   more  lovable  than  as   Mary's  birthday 


guest. 


From  his  visit  to  Lourdes,  in  191 1,  Father 
Price  brought  away  a  remarkable  devotion  to 
Blessed  Bernadette  Soubirous,  the  "  Child  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception".  That  he  had 
some  supernatural  experience  seems  quite 
certain,  although  he  w^ould  never  say  more 
than  this:  "  Something  happened  to  me  at 
Lourdes.  I  can  never  be  the  same  again." 
As  soon  as  he  returned  to  America  he  bent 
his  energies  to  making  known  this  favored 
child  of  Mary,  and  his  appeals  for  the  new 
work  for  foreign  missions  at  Maryknoll  went 

85 


FATHER  PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

hand  in  hand  with  the  spread  of  devotion  to 
Bernadette  and  to  Mary  Immaculate,  the 
Queen  of  the  Apostles.  He  had  always  with 
him  a  number  of  relics  of  Bernadette,  and 
on  the  third  finger  of  his  right  hand  he  wore 
what  was  finally  ascertained  to  be  her  ring. 
He  had  covered  it  with  black  leather,  and 
naturally  it  was  a  never-failing  source  of 
wonder  and  questioning.  When  asked  what 
it  was.  Father  Price  used  to  say:  "Well, 
now,  can  you  keep  a  secret?  " 

On  being  assured  of  that,  he  would  smil- 
ingly remark,  "  So  can  I !  "  —  and  there 
was  an  end  of  it. 

His  room  at  Maryknoll  was  literally  filled 
with  pictures  of  Bernadette,  from  large  por- 
traits on  the  walls  to  small  prints  on  his  desk 
and  shelves.  On  returning  from  one  of  his 
propaganda  trips  he  was  overjoyed  to  find  a 
beautiful  little  imitation  of  the  Lourdes 
Grotto  set  up  in  one  corner  of  his  room  — 
the  work  of  some  Maryknoll  confreres. 
The  beatification  of  Bernadette  gave  him 
special  joy  and  he  celebrated  the  event  by 

86 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


having  a  number  of  medals  designed  and 
struck  in  her  honor.  The  last  of  these,  made 
just  before  he  left  for  China,  represented 
the  Blessed  Virgin  appearing  to  Bernadette 
at  Lourdes  and  telling  her  to  "  pray  and 
work  for  conversions."  Around  the  rim  are 
the  words:  "  The  Message  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception  to  every  Catholic."  On  the 
obverse  is  the  image  of  Our  Divine  Re- 
deemer commissioning  the  Apostles  to,  "  Go, 
teach  all  nations  "j  and  the  encircling  motto 
is:  "All  nations  to  Jesus  through  The  Im- 
maculate Conception." 

Father  Price  also  established  the  Bureau 
of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  to  promote 
devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  under  this 
title:  and  he  had  planned  to  start  a  maga- 
zine for  this  purpose  when  his  approaching 
departure  for  China  made  it  inadvisable. 
He  prepared  in  English  the  only  authentic 
Life  of  Bernadette  of  Lourdes,  and  produced 
several  editions  over  the  name  of  /.  H, 
Gregory.  A  smaller  life  of  Bernadette,  The 
Lily  of  Maryy  also  came  from  his  pen.     It 

87 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 

goes  without  saying  that  these  books  sold  at 
cost,  for  they  were  primarily  intended  to 
spread  devotion  to  Bernadette  and  to  The 
Immaculate  Conception.  They  met  with  a 
warm  welcome  and  received  high  praise  from 
the  press. 

Much  more  might  be  added  to  the  delin- 
eation of  Father  Price's  saintly  character. 
We  might  enlarge  upon  his  virtues,  his  zeal, 
his  extraordinary  devotion  to  Mary  Immacu- 
late. But  this  glimpse  into  the  mind  and  soul 
of  the  man  of  God  will  perhaps  reveal  suf- 
ficiently that  rare  union  of  the  real  contem- 
plative with  the  truly  active,  which  was  so 
strongly  marked  in  him.  We  are  tempted  to 
say  that  in  a  contemplative  life  Father  Price 
would  have  been  supremely  happy.  And 
yet,  the  fruit  of  his  heavenly  intercourse  was 
an  ever-increasing  thirst  for  souls,  to  be  won 
through  his  own  tireless  activity. 

The  most  striking  manifestation  of  his 
apostolic  zeal  came  when  Father  Price  at  the 
age  of  fifty-eight  asked  to  be  assigned  with 
the  first  mission  band  to  leave  Maryknoll 

88 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


for  the  Orient.  If  we  consider  that,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  obstacles  imposed  by  age,  such 
a  step  meant  a  complete  change  of  life  3  that 
it  implied  the  obligation  of  learning  a  diffi- 
cult language  J  and  that  it  called  for  constant 
residence  in  an  enervating  climate  with  a 
prolonged  rainy  season  that  was  almost  cer- 
tain to  bring  on  attacks  of  rheumatism,  — 
we  have  some  comprehension  of  his  yearning 
for  the  salvation  of  immortal  souls  and  of 
his  forgetfulness  of  self.  The  first 
band  of  missioners  was  made  up,  with 
the  exception  of  Father  Price,  of  inexperi- 
enced men  but  recently  ordained,  and  he 
rightly  felt  that  his  long  experience  of 
thirty-three  years  in  the  priesthood  would  be 
of  value  in  the  pioneer  days  of  the  China 
mission.  He  became  the  counselor,  consoler, 
model,  and  inspiration  of  his  three  compan- 
ions, who  loved  him  as  a  father,  and  who 
today,  in  the  midst  of  their  labors,  cherish 
the  remembrance  of  his  Christ-like  charity 
and  hold  his  memory  in  benediction. 

Was  it  a  huge  mistake  for  such  a  man  as 

89 


FATHER   PRICE  OF  MART  KNOLL 


Father  Price  to  leave  a  sphere  of  certain  use- 
fulness at  home  for  an  uncertain  work  in  the 
distant  mission  fields  of  the  Orient?  Some 
say  that  it  was.  But  "  the  Spirit  breathes 
where  it  will/'  and  to  follow  its  call  can 
never  be  a  mistake.  One  has  only  to  make 
sure,  as  far  as  that  is  possible,  that  the  sum- 
mons is  from  God  and  not  a  temptation  in 
disguise.  Father  Price  acted  judiciously, 
and  gave  the  question  of  leaving  his  life's 
work  for  a  new  apostolate  careful  considera- 
tion, submitting  it  to  the  judgment  of  holy 
and  venerable  advisei'S. 

His  new  ministry  v/as  a  short  one  —  yet 
we  know  that  he  "  lived  a  long  space  in  a 
short  time."  He  left  no  interpretation  of 
his  life's  work  with  us:  not  a  word  came  out 
of  the  silence  to  show  what  he  himself 
thought  of  it,  with  its  light  and  shade,  as  he 
lay  dying  so  far  away  from  his  own  Sunny 
South.  But  what  an  inspiration,  to  find  the 
veteran  missioner  dying  in  a  foreign  and 
more  fruitful  field,  after  a  life  of  untold  and 
often    fruitless    labor    in    his   native    state! 

90 


MARY  KNOLL    MISSIONERS    AT     THEIR 

ELDER     BROTHER'S    GRAVE,    HAPPY 

VALLEY    CEMETERY,    HOXGKONG 


THE  MAN  OF  GOD 


Many  would  have  yearned  for  rest  and  re- 
tirement after  such  a  career:  one  apostolate 
is  usually  sufficient  for  even  the  most  pious 
and  energetic.  But  Father  Price  was  in  the 
spring  of  life  at  fifty-nine  years  of  age, 
ready  to  encounter  hardships  fit  to  over- 
whelm the  youngest  and  most  fervent  levite. 
Like  the  Apostle,  he  always  looked  on  him- 
self as  the  unprofitable  servant  and  feared 
to  go  before  God  with  empty  hands.  Mar- 
tyrdom was  his  desired  goal,  and  the  subject 
of  years  of  prayer.  He  found  it,  not  as  he 
sought  it,  but  in  the  mysterious  way  de- 
signed by  Providence.  Death  itself  had  no 
power  to  distress  him,  save  in  the  thought 
of  pagan  souls  untaught,  and  when  it  came 
to  him  in  a  foreign  land  it  found  him  ready 
to  go  "  home  ",  there  to  continue  his  apos- 
tolate through   the   Communion   of   Saints. 


91 


^r{ 


OTHER  MARYKNOLL  PUBLICATIONS 

Maryknoll-At-Ten 

A    pamphlet    history    of   the    Catholic    Foreign 
Mission  Society  of  America. 

Field  Afar  Stories,  Vol.  I 

Field  Afar  Stories,  Vol.  U 

Field  Afar  Stories,  Vol.  lU 

Separate  collections    of  tales  bearing   on  foreign 
missions  and  the  foreign-mission  vocation. 

An  American  Missionary 

Fr.  Judge,  S.J.,  in  Alaska. 

A  Modem  Martyr 

Life  and  letters  of  Bl.  Theophane  Venard. 

For  the  Faith 

Just  de  Bretenieres,  martyred  in  Korea  in  1866. 

The  Martyr  of  Futuna 

Bl.  Peter  Chanel,  S.M.,  martyred  In  Oceania  in 
1839. 

In  The  Homes  of  Martyrs 

Visits  to  the  homes  and  home  folk  of  fne  young 
missionary  martyrs  of  the  past  century. 

Observations  in  the  Orient 

A  survey  of  Catholic  Missions  in  the  Far  East 
—  chiefly  China  and  Japan. 

The  Field  Afar 

Monthly  magazine  of  the  Catholic  Foreign  Mission 
Society. 

The  Maryknoll  Junior 

Monthly  for  boys  and  girls. 

For  further  information,  address 

THE  CATHOLIC  FOREIGN  MISSION  SOCIETY 
OF  AMERICA 

MARYKNOLL    :    :    :     NEW  YORK 


93 


